HOPES AXD HELPS 



Clje gating nf botlj &m$, 



RELATING TO 



the foemation of character, choice of avocation, health, amusement, 
music, conversation, cultivation of intellect, moral sentiment, 
ial affection, courtship, and maeeiage. 



Bey. G. S. Weaver, 

ACTHOE OF "LECTURES ON MENTAL SCIENCE,"' ETC., ETC. 



Wisdom's ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.— Bible. 






NEW YOEK: 
FOWLERS AND WELLS, PUBLISHERS, 

Clinton Hall, 131 Nassau Street. 

I fl Washington St.] ^ - g [London, No. 142 Strand. 



^ 






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I ^ 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1852, by 

FOWLEKS AND WELLS, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern 
District of New York. 



NEW YORK STEREOTYPE ASSOCIATION, 

201 "William Street. 



PREFACE, 



The design of this work is encouragement for 
the Youxg. The author's brief experience and ob- 
servation have taught him that Youth need en- 
couragement, advisedly given, more than any thing 
else. Every word of hearty cheer is a breath of 
inspiration to those just entering upon life's solemn 
duties. Every book breathing trust and hope, min- 
gled with the friendly suggestions of wisdom and 
experience, is of real value to them. What if 
they have read others ? Another may still be use- 
ful. Shall they hear no sermon next Sabbath, be- 
cause they heard one last? Shall no book on 
religion be published, because the Bible is in the 
hands of all ? 

One book read only prepares the way for an- 



IV PREFACE. 

other, though it may be on the same subject. The 
sight of one scene of beauty gives us a taste for 
another. The formation of one friendship warms 
the heart for another. 

Every writer can write for some minds, and no 
one can write for all. In hopes that a kindred 
chord may be struck in the minds of some Youth, 
which shall awaken them to a higher life, and a 
deeper realization of their own importance, and the 
beauty and immense utility of virtuous living, this 
work is sent out. Go, little book, and as thou dost 
go, speak of thy mission to the Youth thou dost 
meet ; and the Father's blessing be upon thee ! 

G. S. W. 

St. Louis, Mo. 



CONTENTS, 



LECTURE I. 

INTRODUCTION. 

Responsibility of the Teacher's Mission — Importance of a Single Thought- 
Facility of the Youthful Mind — Author's Sympathy with the Young — The Sea 
of Life — Life, a Scene of Progression — Anticipations of the Young — Dangers in 
Life's Journey — Youthful Fear and Instability — True and False Bravery — 
Moral Courage — Free Institutions, a Nursery for Youth — Self-made or Never 
Made — Good and Bad Luck — Youth, the Seed-time of Age — Age, the Har- 
vest Season of Life — The Young, Heirs to the Past and Future — What will you 
do with the Future? — An Answer demanded — Duties and Rewards of the 
Young Page 9 

LECTURE II. 

MEDITATION. 

The Seed-thought of Future Usefulness — True Mode of Meditation — Mental 
Impulses — Yacillation, the Euin of Thousands— Pioneers of a New and Better 
Era — Propriety a Jewel — What Constitutes Virtue — The First Lesson of 
Youth — The Hopes and Glories of Youth — Noble, Self-poised Mentality — Power 
of Temptation— Self-denying Energy— A Truly Noble Character— A Pattern of 
Excellence 29 

LECTURE III. 

THE DANGERS OF IMPULSE. 

The Dangers of Impulse — Obstacles to Virtue — Evils of Ungoverned Passions — 
Criminality the Fruit of Impulse — Restraint of the Animal Passions — Enthrone- 
ment of Morality and Intelligence — Self-government the Soul of Progress — Pub- 
lic Evil flows from Individual Vice— Our Future in the Hands of our Youth . 43 



VI CONTENTS. 

LECTURE IV. 

FO EM AT I ON OF CHARACTER 

Life is for a Purpose — A useless Life — What is Character '? — Character Self-made 
— Duty of Parents — Chance Character always Evil — Choice of Vice or Virtue 
open to all — Will or Circumstance Clothe the Mind — Goodness the only Source 
of Happiness — Character is "catching" — Inter-relation of Minds — Power of 
silent Influence — Way to do Good to the World — Molding Immortal Minds — 
Every One can be a Benefactor — All intended to be Happy — A vicious Course 
one of Difficulty — Vice respects Virtue — Character the Soul's Habiliment — 
Character Eternal Page 52 

LECTURE V. 

CHOICE OF AVOCATION, AND PERSEVERANCE. 

Man must Live for both Body and Mind — Temporal and Spiritual Interests not 
at War — Every One should have a useful Pursuit — Special Training for the 
Avocation — Pursuit adapted to Capacity and Taste — No Settled Business pro- 
motes Vice — What Perseverance has done — The Great in Mind are Laborious 
— Industry a Passport to Greatness — Friends and Success attend the Diligent — 
Mental and Physical Labor give Power — Nature a Scene of Labor — If you 
would be seen, Shine— Real Good on the Mountain-top — Idle Genius Unsuc- 
cessful — Brain, and Hand, and Nerve must Work — Life in Earnest 73 

LECTURE VI. 

HE A L T II . 
Health the Foundation of all Successful x\ction — Bright Stars oftenest Eclipsed — 
Health a Binding Duty — Omniscience of the Eye— Omnipotence of the Hand 
— Disease makes Man a Blank — Natural Death Rare — Disease a Penalty, not a 
Curse — Health a Duty to Friends and to God — We Daily Sin against Ourselves 
— Prevention the Best Doctor — All Else rather than Health Studied — Disease 
Disgraceful — Ignorance the Mother of Disease — Youth the Hope of the World 
— How to Preserve Health 90 

LECTURE VII. 

TEMPERANCE. 

J**. Deceitful Sea of Pleasure — Danger unconsciously Near — Elements of Intem- 
perance within Us — Save the Image of God from Blight — Bodily Pains preach 
Temperance — What is Intemperance — A Personal Test of Intemperance — 
Appetite, a Voice of Warning — Drunkards not the only Intemperate — Rich 
Tables the Bane of Temperance — Little Roots support the Main Trunk — Youth, 
the Seed-ground of Wheat or Tares — Ultimate Effects of Temperance .... 106 



CONTENTS. Vll 

LECTURE Y11I. 

AMUSEMENTS. 

Laughter is Purely zr«wu*Mr— Conflicting Opinions on Amusements— Importance 
of a Bight Decision— Amusement a Natural Instinct — Nature a Groat and Just 
Teacher — Why does Man crave Amusement? — Mirthfulncss a Primitive Fac- 
ulty — Hilarity promotes Health — Quality of Amusements — Excess a Source of 
Dissipation — Exciting Amusements Dangerous — Proper Amusement Spiritual 
Enjoyment — Amusement should blend with Duty — Home the chief Scene of 
Amusement — Foreign Amusements Unsafe — Amusement removes Care and 
Sorrow — Labor and Ptecreation should not Conflict — Home made Happy by 
Amusements . Page 119 

LECTURE JX. 

M U SIC. 

What Music really is — Power and Influence of Music — The Soul Peptized in 
Music — Music a F/niversal Language — The Harmony of the Universe — Music 
is the Voice of Love — Music the Voice of Worship — Cultivation of Music — 
Music a Spiritualizer — Prostitution of Music — Music an Essential of Educa- 
tion 187 

LECTURE X. 

CHASTITY OF LANGUAGE. 

Mind, the fountain of Happiness and Misery — Creation, the Embodied Thought 
of God— Power and Dignity of Language — Charm of Pure Language— Groveling 
Minds employ Vulgar Words— Home, the place for Pure Speech— Home, the 
School of Life — Simplicity, the Beauty of Speech — By-words Vulgar — By-worda 
Senseless — Profane Swearing — Evils of Profanity — Quaker Anecdote — Pure 
Dress of Thought 148 

LECTURE XI. 

CULTIVATION OF THE INTELLECT. 

General Adoration of Intellectual Capacity— Creative Power of Intellect — Uncul- 
tivated Intellect has few Pleasures — Cultivated Intellect Grasps the Unh 
Geniuses of the Past — Mind Immortal — Menial Culture Progressive— Culture 

Power to do Good— Knowledge is power — How shall ;' 
led— Poverty a Mental Stimulant— The Will is the Way — 1' >d Sehool- 
master— Glory of Cultivated Intellect ltt 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

LECTURE XII. 

CULTIVATION OF THE MOEAL SENTIMENTS, 

'Moral Sentiments, the Imperial Crown of the Human Soul— Moral Culture neces- 
sary—Immortality, the Glory of Man's Being— Alliance of Man with his 
Maker— Adversity Fortifies the Soul— Moral Force, the Fruit of Trial— The 
Storms and Trials of Life — Moral Power Invulnerable — The Five Moral Jew- 
els — Veneration — Link between God and Man — Benevolence— Power and 
Scope of Benevolence — Conscientiousness — Hope — Fraternity of the Moral 
Affections — Faith, or Spiritual Light — Eesult of Moral Culture Page 1T6 

LECTURE XIII. 

CULTIVATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 
Man's Sympathy with the Sentient Universe — Affection, the Motive Force of the 
Soul — Power of the Affections — Charm of Eeciprocity — Omnipotence of Love — 
How to Cultivate the Affections — Moral Worth the Basis of enduring Love — 
Eeverence for Moral Purity — Eeason and Will, the Guide of Affection — Filial 
Affection — Trust only those who Love their Parents — Fraternal Affection — Love 
of Country — Universality of Home-Love — Patriotism — Philanthropy — Universal 
Brotherhood 194 

LECTURE XIV. 

COUETSHIP. 
The Season of Courtship the most Important part of Life — Too Serious a Matter 
for a Joke — Why Marriage is a Lottery — Superficial Courtship — Marriage Ee- 
veals the True Character — Love Character, not Person merely — Feeling, not 
Eeason, leads astray — True Object of Courtship — Proper Age to Select Compan- 
ions — Childish Courtships unsafe — Evils of Premature Marriages — False Ideas 
of Married Life— Proper Age to Marry — A Companion without a Character — 
What is a Companion ? — Courtship should Eeveal the True Character — Mutual 
Hypocrisy and Deception — Court for the Future as well as for the Present — 
True Marriage not a Lottery 211 

LECTURE XV. 

MAEEIAGE. 

Marriage, the Foundation of the Social Fabric — Improper Marriage a living Mis- 
ery — Marriage should be made a Study — Ignorance, the Bane of Matrimony — 
Importance of the Eesults of Marriage — Characteristics of the Sexes — Contrasts 
and Affinities of Character — Goodness does not constitute Harmony — Duty of 
nearly all to Marry — Matrimonial Candidates Classified— A true Mate the other 
half of Self— Honesty in Matrimonial Matters — Marrying for a Home, Money, 
or Passion — Study thy Constitution — Harmony of Temperament — Intellectual 
Adaptation — Moral and Social Harmony— A thorough Acquaintance neces- 
sary 229 



HOPES AND HELPS. 



LECTURE I. 

INTKODUCTION. 



Responsibility of the Teacher's Mission — Importance of a Single Thought — 
Facility of the Youthful Mind— Author's Sympathy with the Young— The Sea 
of Life — Life, a Scene of Progression — Anticipations of the Young — Dangers in 
Life's Journey — Youthful Fear and Instability — True and False Bravery — 
Moral Courage — Free Institutions, a Nursery for Youth — Self-made or Never 
Made — Good and Bad Luck — Youth, the Seed-time of Age — Age. the Harvest 
Season of Life — The Young, Heirs to the Past and Future — What will you do 
with the Future ? — An Answer demanded — Duties and Rewards of the Young. 

No position in the minister's or the author's life is more 
responsible than that of lecturer or essayist to youth. 
And if apologies from a mortal are ever needed, they are 
when such offices are assumed. If a man should ever 
tremble, it should be when he essays to impress convictions 
upon youthful minds; for in them he will touch chords 
strung by the Infinite Organist of creation, which will vi- 
brate when he shall be gathered to his fathers, which will 
echo and re-echo from hill to hill down the valley of life, 
and reverberate along the shores of eternity. A thought 
struck into a young mind ! Who shall tell what it will 

1* 



10 IMPORTANCE OF A SINGLE THOUGHT. 

bring forth? It may overturn empires, undermine sys- 
tems, reconstruct states, metamorphose philosophy, and 
remodel the fabric of society. A single seed-thought in 
the minds of Luther, Franklin, Gall, and Fulton, led the 
way to the changes and victories, yea to the wonders with 
which the world has been startled within the last three 
hundred years, and which have put a new face upon, and 
a new heart into, human affairs. It is so with almost every 
mind, even those whose doings have been all within them- 
selves. A thought has started a new life, established a 
new earth, and spread a new heaven in the soul. Often 
in minds unknown to fame there are revolutions not less 
wonderful and extensive in their influence, than those 
which suddenly shock and stir the world. The deep river 
runs still. The silent influences of the calm old sun, are 
mightier far than the storm-crash or earthquake-shock. 
Every mind, in the course of its progressive and eternal 
being, passes through changes that outvie in grandeur and 
importance the revolutions of the whole world in any one 
century, and all these may be, and no doubt often are, 
sensibly affected by a single thought. Better measure the 
circuit of Orion than think to measure the influence of a 
thought. 

A good thought or a virtuous impression may redeem a 
whole life from sin and misery; and a bad impression 
may work a corresponding amount of ruin, with all their 
secondary and ultimate results, which no human stretch 
of thought can comprehend. 

We stand amid mysteries momentous and grand. The 






FACILITY OF THE YOUTHFUL MIND. 11 

nerves of the universe of intelligence are strung about us 
beneath the visible creation, and we touch them, turn which 
way we will. Every touch from every human creature 
produces a wide sensation, either pleasant or unpleasant, 
agreeable or painful, according to the wisdom or folly of 
the touch, or its virtuous or vicious nature. He who stands 
in any of the nervous centers of this universal body of in- 
telligence, of course produces the greater sensation accord- 
ing to his position. 

These thoughts can not fail to -impress us with our per- 
sonal responsibilities, and ought not to fail to affect duly 
and deeply him who occupies any position among the in- 
structors of youth. 

One may talk to age, and the opinions, and habits, and 
states of mind held and cherished for years unaltered, will 
prevent his words from making any impression deeper than 
that which trembles on the ear-drum. 

So he may lecture to manhood in its vigor, and the 
world will roll its great ball of business, fame, and sin be- 
tween him and the souls he would reach, and well-nigh 
drown his words, though they may be pregnant with wis- 
dom and love. But the ear of youth is open, and ready 
to catch every sound, and to be impressed with every 
thought. 

This adds additional responsibility to the adviser of 
youth, but at the same time urges him on to nobler efforts 
in their behalf. Eesponsibility, when properly felt, crushes 
not into silence and inactivity, but goads to effort. 

Youth, impressible, ardent, earnest; full of glee and 



12 author's sympathy with the young. 

gladness ; just out from innocent childhood ; swelling with 
ardor, ambition, and hopefulness ; without experience, wis- 
dom, or discretion ; pressing toward manhood, eager to 
do its great work — who does not love it 1 

The world is soon to be theirs ; who does not love to 
assist them to be in readiness for its duties ? Where else 
can a word of wisdom and encouragement do so much 
good % 

How beautiful is youth ! Even the old remember it 
with joy, and recount its doings with grateful emotions, 
mingled a little with a feeling of uncensurable pride. 

To me youth is full of rosy life and developing charms. 
I have scarcely passed its season of budding promise and 
flowing hope. All the impulses, hopes, anticipations, and 
aspirations peculiar to this ardent, sanguine, yet inexperi- 
enced age, are yet fresh in my mind. They are the mem- 
ories of yesterday. They are mingled with the solemn 
duties of opening manhood. Hence the interests of youth 
are my interests ; their feelings are my feelings ; their 
good is my good. Our sympathies flow together; our 
objects in life are (or should be) the same. Our similarity 
of age forms between us a congeniality of spirit, thought, 
and action. This fact makes me feel that I may talk as a 
brother to my youthful friends, upon the realities of life 
which we are entering so nearly together. Will they not 
listen because I am one of them, if not for the wisdom of 
my words % If I have passed a little farther into the broad 
sea of life then my young friends, where the billows begin 
to roll and the breakers to rise, and am yet within speak- 



THE SEA OF LIFE. 13 

ing distance of them, and remember well the reefs I have 
passed, the shoals I have escaped, and the dangers I have 
seen, is it not my duty to send back over the waves my 
voice of warning and encouragement ? Is it not my duty 
to speak in affectionate entreaty and counsel, as one fear- 
fully conscious of the glories and dangers of the deep, deep 
sea of life, and solemnly impressed with the importance 
of every word he utters % 

Life is a fixed fact, a stern and solemn reality. We are 
voyagers upon its broad, wild sea. Our bark is launched 
by other hands than ours. The currents of this great sea 
are all setting outward from the port we have left. The 
winds are off-shore, strong, and unchangeable. Go w T e 
must. We can neither stop nor turn back. The journey 
must be performed, whether we will or not. Resistance 
is as vain as it is impossible. It becomes us, then, to 
make the best of our voyage, to make it as profitable, pleas- 
ant, and delightful as we can. Regrets are idle ; sighs are 
useless; murmurings are unwise. We can make it in- 
tensely delightful and almost infinitely profitable ; or we 
can make it miserable, and a prodigal w r aste of the most 
precious means of enduring wealth. Wisdom's voice is 
for the most active diligence for both the profit and the 
pleasure of the voyage. She crieth against folly, sin, and 
a waste of precious time and energy. Minutes are dia- 
monds. Strength is wealth. Opportunities are angel- 
visits of fortune. All should be seized upon with avidity, 
and turned to a good account. 

The vessel we have set sail in is " fearfully and wonder- 



14 LIFE, A SCENE OF PKOGRESSION. 

fully made." Its architecture is cli\ *ne. Its beauty is like 
a "fairy ship" of life, riding upon the waves of the "river 
of peace ;" human words re&ise to attempt its description. 
Its strength surpasses bars of iron and brass and bands of 
steel. Yet this ship may go down ere it reaches the haven 
beyond the sea. Its beauty may be marred ; its strength 
wasted; its delicate workmanship defaced, ere the journey 
is half performed. Wisdom cries, beware ! Her voice is. 
for prudence, cleanliness, and temperance, and an active 
and watchful industry in beautifying and adorning the ves- 
sel ; in making it airy, comfortable, and salubrious, in filling 
it with music and enriching it with the treasures of the 
pearl-caverned sea on which we glide, and for establishing 
the law of love for the control of all on board, that safety, 
happiness, and profit may be insured even till we turn our 
prow into the'harbor of eternal peace. 

The youth of to-day are the children of yesterday. The 
sports and frolics of yesterday have lost their relish this 
morning. They are too childish now. They have not 
meaning, importance, dignity enough. With the morning 
sun of youth there came a new order of feelings, a new 
class of desires, fresh, warm, impulsive, and clamorous. 
They ask for something they have not yet seen, or felt, or 
known. Our young friends look out into the world, and 
behold all is fresh, fair, and beautiful. They behold a field 
opening before them, wide and boundless as appears the 
vision of the future to the gaze of untaught eyes, and full 
of objects of interest that dazzle and bewilder the sight. 
They pant for the beauties and joys of this glorious, flower 



ANTICIPATIONS OF THE YOUNG. 15 

strowii field of life. Which way they look they are de- 
lighted. Pleasure's hall, ambition's camp, love's rosy bow- 
er, mammon's mansion, learning's retreat, religion's sacred 
temple, ail glitter on their sight; and the impulse within 
them is to go out and enjoy the realities that appear so 
entrancing to their view ; as though to go out was to en- 
joy them. 

Like a young mariner at the shore of the ocean, gazing 
out with a panting heart to be upon its mild, beautiful bo- 
som, little dreaming that far in the distance it is nursing 
the storm and the whirlwind, to toss high his frail bark, 
and perhaps shatter it to atoms, is youth gazing forward 
upon the bright sea of life, which his young and untaught 
imagination paints before him. This is youth. It has 
great desires, but scanty means for giving them gratifica- 
tion ; splendid visions of glory in the far-off distance, but 
little power to bring them within its reach ; noble aspira- 
tions and glorious hopes, but little ability to attain their 
objects ; mighty impulses for great and good achievements, 
but little wisdom and prudence to direct them ; lofty con- 
ceptions of the attainments with which it would enrich its 
mind, the laurels with which it would crown its brow, and 
the honors with which it would mantle its shoulders, but 
little of that dauntless moral courage and firmness of pur- 
pose which are necessary to do battle with the ills and 
evils of time, and force a hard-earned victory out of the 
hands of life's relentless marauders. It is quick and im- 
petuous, with little foresight ; it sees every rose, but not 
the thorn ; it is delighted with the beds of flowers about 



16 DANGERS IN LIFE'S JOURNEY. 

it, but knows not that the serpent is lurking below ; it is 
in rapture with the rainbow, but dreams not that it is 
painted on a wreath of vapor ; it has a wide-spread sail, 
but little ballast ; a mighty force in the engine, but a pilot 
unused to the sea ; it is rich in anticipated treasures, but 
poor in all that is requisite to obtain them ; it is weak, 
while dreaming of strength ; ignorant, while professing to 
much knowledge ; pure, while unconscious that the mi- 
asmas of corruption are rising around it ; innocent, confid- 
ing, and inexperienced, while not aware that smiling and 
deceitful tempters are lurking on every hand to lure it into 
the gilded walks of ruin and death. This being youth, and 
its beautiful but perilous situation, it appears but reason- 
able that every benevolent soul should endeavor to point 
out some of the dangers with which the young are sur- 
rounded, and suggest such courses of conduct, such princi- 
ples of action, and inspirations to virtue and honor, as shall 
tend to render them safe, and direct their feet into the paths 
of peace, duty, and progress. 

We are social beings, made to assist and encourage each 
other, as well as for mutual pleasure. If we each stood 
alone, apart from all others, like an isolated iceberg, and 
sought only our own happiness in a selfish, unamiable 
state of mind and course of conduct, how cheerless and 
forlorn would be our lives. 

Little should we know of the real joys of soul, the solid 
bliss of life which we might possess by obedience to the 
dictates of our social nature. Advice, instruction, and en- 
couragement are the best offerings of friendship to the 






YOUTHFUL FEAR AND INSTABILITY. 17 

young. And not the least of these is encouragement. 
With all its ambition and activity, youth is faint-hearted. 
It wants courage — calm, steady, moral courage — to go out 
in pursuit of its objects with a fearless confidence of success. 
Everywhere we find youth desiring good that it despairs 
of attaining. One's ambition is fired with the glory of a 
finished education, but he despairs of ever attaining his 
object, and so plods on in some ungenial calling, miserable 
and almost useless to society, without pursuing steadily 
and perse veringly his object. Another covets a profession, 
but despairs, and gives up from the same cause. Another 
would be a merchant, but has not courage to attempt what 
is the sole end of his ambition. Another would be a Chris- 
tian in the high moral sense of that word, but the ideal of 
his holy ambition is so far above him that he despairs, for- 
getting that a daily progress, with such efforts as he might 
all the time put forth, would place him high among the 
ranks of the saintly followers of the Man of all goodness. 
Not one half of our youth are developing the full energy 
of their capacities ; yea, nine-tenths are growing up in 
comparative undevelopment, not one half of their real 
capacity being called into action, from this one cause — a 
want of moral courage. They have energy, ambition, in- 
dustry, but lack courage. An assurance from a valued 
friend, a word of cheer from a known and esteemed author, 
or a good-speed from the lips of experience, would be of 
essential service to them. It would fire their courage, and 
would be true to their desires, their ambition, and 
duty. 



18 TRUE AND FALSE BRAVERY. 

I everywhere meet with faltering youth — noble souls, 
but fearful. Poverty, or diffidence, or the whims of un- 
wise friends, or some fancied defect of mind or body, keeps 
them from the fields they- desire to occupy, and where they 
could be more useful and successful than any where else in 
life, because their hearts are there. They lack true brav- 
ery of soul. Or, it may be in them, but it is undeveloped. 
Bravery, like all other virtues, is developed by the hand 
of culture. The noblest bravery in the world is moral 
bravery, that which meets disappointment, trial, affliction, 
failure, misfortune, sickness, and all the varied ills of life, 
with a determined and vigorous composure and a stern and 
trained self-reliance, which enable its possessor to pursue 
his even course undismayed, and add to, rather than detract 
from, his strength. Such a bravery is a lofty moral hero- 
ism, as great as that which nerved the martyrs' hearts and 
bared the reformers' stalwart arms. The bravery that 
faces the cannon's mouth is often the fear of public rebuke, 
or the love of public praise. Seldom is true bravery ex- 
hibited on the field of battle, or in any of the great conflicts 
of arms or minds carried on in the audience of the world. It 
is more generally ambition, fear of censure, love of gain, 
animal excitement, or the madness of narcotic or stimula- 
ting drugs or drinks. These supply the place of bravery, 
and the world knows not the difference. But there is a 
bravery that is true. It is the proudest, sublimest of hu- 
man virtues. It is that bravery which dares be true to 
duty though the heavens come down ; true when the world 
knows it not ; true in the calm resolve of the midnight 



MORAL COURAGE. 19 

hour, when no eye but God's looks into the soul; true 
when the world would applaud for being false, and every 
worldly interest should seem to offer a price for cowardice. 
The bravery that under these circumstances is the same 
calm, undismayed, unseduced, dauntless vigor and deter- 
mination of soul, is worthy the name, and is a godlike 
grandeur of moral greatness worthy a place in the calendar 
of the sublimest heroism. Our youth want more of this 
heroism. There is a fearful deficiency everywhere. It is 
as much needed in the common walks of life, as in the 
higher or highest pursuits, and often more so ; for in pub- 
lic life the world often sustains the martyr, or the defender 
of humanity, or her injured rights ; but in common life it 
is often that the severest trials have to be borne in solitary 
silence, while the contumely of neighbors, unjustly given, 
adds another trial scarcely less severe. To suppress the 
mutiny of the passions, to silence the clamors of lust, 
avarice, and ambition, to moderate the vehemence of desire, 
to check the repinings of sorrow, to disperse the gloom of 
disappointment, and suppress the dark spirits of despond- 
ency, requires a degree of vigorous moral courage that is 
not so often possessed as it is needed. It is everywhere 
needed, and very seldom possessed to a very great degree. 
Whoever encourages this virtue in the world, either by 
example or precept, does the world good. The fear that 
its want inspires in nearly all youth, makes them often in- 
tensely miserable, subjects them to the doubt, and black- 
ness, and torment of despondency, oi " the blues." as they 
call it, and all the enervation, perversion* of mind, waste 



20 FREE INSTITUTIONS, A NURSERY FOR YOUTH. 



of time, and ultimate evils that follow. Thousands on 
thousands of noble-minded and generous-hearted youth are 
rained, or greatly injured by this prevailing cowardice. 
Scarcely any escape its scathing influence. Mere courage, 
determination, force of will, cheerful pursuit of known 
duties, or the objects of honorable desires, gladsome labor 
in the paths of right and usefulness, is the almost universal 
want among manhood, and especially among the young. 
Life is full of beauty, and ought to be of gladness. It has 
a thousand glorious joys, and as many sources of constant 
enjoyment. Constant cheerfulness is a duty. A faithful, 
joyful pursuit of the things that will minister most to our 
peace, usefulness, happiness, and progress, is a moral 
obligation that we ought to comply with all the time. 

To encourage and enforce this duty, and strengthen its 
moral bearings upon the consciences of its youthful read- 
ers, is the chief object of this entire work. The youth of 
our country have no right to be unhappy ; no business to 
be desponding ; no sort of a privilege granted them by 
any constitution, either written or unwritten, in any of our 
States, or by any code of laws, natural or divine, to have 
"the blues" or to fail to pursue the objects of their honor- 
able ambition. Our free institutions are designed to be 
the nurseries of youth, to afford them an open field and 
fair play for the legitimate and righteous exercise of their 
powers, in all the pursuits of high-minded industry. The 
friends of youth may, and will, encourage and advise them, 
through books, lectures, lessons, examples, and every known 
means of assistance ; but depend upon it, young men and 



SELF-^IADE OR NEVER MADE. 21 

women, it is your own work, after all. Nobody else can 
do it for you. Fortunes are hewn out for ourselves, not 
made to order at a fortune shop. Characters are forged 
on the anvil of industry, by the well-directed strokes of the 
head and hand. Children are what they are made ; but 
men and women are what they make themselves. The 
web of life is drawn into the loom for us ; but we weave 
it ourselves. We throw our own shuttle and work our 
own treadles. The warp is given us ; but the woof we 
make ourselves — find our own materials, and color and 
figure it- to our own taste. 

Every man is the architect of his own house, his own 
temple of fame. If he builds one great, honorable, and 
glorious, the merit and the bliss are his. If he rears a pol- 
luted, unsightly, vice-haunted den of devils, to himself the 
shame and misery belong. Success is the product of the 
sum of our years multiplied by our good actions. Life is 
a problem, and we solve it on the blackboard of the world. 
The answer we get at death, will approximate to the true 
one just in proportion to the correctness of our work. 
Every mistake, if not rectified, will carry us far from the 
truth. Errors in the commencement of the work are 
doubly dangerous, for by every succeeding step they carry 
us farther from the true end. Hence, we should start 
right in youth, that is, get a correct statement of the prob- 
lem at which we must work while we live. We must not 
attribute our success to blind "fortune" or our failures to 
"bad luck" Luck and fortune are mere words without 
any meaning. What is called "good fortune" is the result 



22 GOOD AND BAD LUCK. 

of sound judgment supported by a stout heart and a ready 
hand. " Bad luck" is the reverse of this. 

Says an eloquent divine, in a lecture on Idleness: "I 
may here, as well as any where, impart the secret of what 
is called good and bad luck. There are men who, suppos- 
ing Providence to have an implacable spite against them, 
bemoan in the poverty of a wretched old age the misfor- 
tunes of their lives. Luck forever ran against them and 
for others. One, with a good profession, lost his luck in 
the river, where he idled away his time a-fishing, when he 
should have been in the office. Another, with a good trade, 
perpetually burnt up his luck with his hot temper, which 
provoked all his employers to leave him. Another, with 
a lucrative business, lost his luck by amazing diligence at 
every thing but his own business. Another, who steadily 
followed his trade, as steadily followed his bottle. An- 
other, who was honest and constant to his work, erred by 
perpetual misjudgments — -he lacked discretion. Hundreds 
loose their luck by endorsing; by sanguine speculations; 
by trusting fraudulent men ; and by dishonest gains. A 
man never has good luck who has a bad wife. I never 
knew an early-rising, hard-working, prudent man, careful 
of his earnings, and strictly honest, who complained of bad 
luck. A good character, good habits, and iron industry, 
are impregnable to the assaults of all the ill-luck, that fools 
ever dreamed of. But when I see a tatterdemalion, creep- 
ing out of a grocery late in the forenoon, with his hands 
stuck in his pockets, the rim of his hat turned up, and 
the crown knocked in, I know he has had bad luck ; for 



YOTTTHj THE SEED-TIME OF AGE. 23 

the want of all luck is to be a sluggard, a knave, or a 
tippler.'' 

There is solid good sense in this extract, which ought to 
be learned by every youth. What countless thousands of 
old people are complaining of bad luck, in a peevish, sickly, 
disagreeable decline of life, which really is the legitimate 
result of the irregular, ill-directed, selfish, or vicious lives 
they have lived. Every youth should live with one eye 
on old age. If he should die before he gets there, it will 
never do him any injury. The moral principles of youth 
laid in store for age, will be just as valuable beyond death 
as this side. 

Youth is a beautiful season of life. It is full of bright- 
ness, and radiant in smiles. It may well be compared to 
a mountain rill that has just left its bubbling source, which 
laughs and dances along amid the beauty and freshness of 
the upland scenery, kissing the flowers that dip their fra- 
grant lips in its lucid waves, and smiling in the glad sun- 
shine let in through the waving branches above it, before 
it reaches the great muddy stream to which it is uncon- 
sciously hastening. 

This freshness and gladness that is so inherent in the 
youthful nature, should be carried into maturer life. What 
a charm it would add to middle life and old age, if it were 
so. Youth's outgushing gladsomeness, subdued by expe- 
rience into a refined and happy tenderness, would be like 
flowers and fruits dallying amid the foliage of the same 
bough. 

Whatever charms we now possess, we should retaim 



24 AGE, THE HARVEST SEASON OF LIFE. 

to adorn our characters through every succeeding stage 
of life. It is wrong to lay off the charms of youth in old 
age. Age should heighten every spiritual beauty ; expe- 
rience should subdue and soften it. Each year should add 
new adornments, but lay off none. Age should be more 
beautiful and happy than youth. And so it will be, if life 
is properly lived, if health is preserved, and the character 
every day beautified. A fretful, ignorant, unhappy old 
age is a proof of youthful errors and manhood blunders and 
views. It is the natural result of the life that has gone 
before it. If we live right, enjoyments increase with in- 
creasing virtue and wisdom. 

Many of the springs of our purest happiness open in our 
affections. Every day should make these more pure, re- 
fined, and strong. The affections of youth are naturally 
volatile and liable to instability. In middle age, if they 
have been properly cultivated, they are deeper, warmer, 
truer, stronger, and enter into all the desires and plans of 
life ; are the great substratum on which the solid masonry 
of life is built. In old age, they transfuse and transfix the 
whole being, shedding in all the chambers of the soul the 
soft, mellow light of a life's cultivation and refinement. 
This is what the God of love designed old age to be ; that 
season of life in which the power and law of love should 
imbue and sway the whole soul ; and if life is properly 
lived, this is what it will be. Affection, wisdom, and moral 
worth may all be augmented with the increase of years, 
and their triune glories so blended in age, that an angel 
Jj^auty and blessedness shall be the crown to be worn into 



THE YOUNG, HEIRS TO THE PAST AND FUTURE. 25 

the company of cherubim and seraphim in the mansion of 
eternal progress and glory. 

One thought here respecting the duties of youth to the 
world, as well as themselves. By an unalterable decree 
of nature, generations succeed each other upon the stage 
of action in quick and rapid succession. As the world is 
left by one, it is taken by the next. All its great concerns, 
however important and grand, are left to succeeding hands. 
The present generation is the product of the past. Into it 
is gathered the congregated wisdom of all that has gone 
before. Marked, peculiar, and brilliant are the accessions 
to the wealth of our time. Discoveries the most unex- 
pected and wonderful, improvements the most useful and 
permanent, and advancements the most rapid, mark the 
developments of this age. Our fathers have astonished 
the world. In science, art, government, morals, religion, 
and every department of life, they have shown the proofs 
of their industry and principles. Noble and gratifying to 
the philanthropist and Christian are the evidences of the 
progress of our race in whatsoever is great and good. The 
present moment is pregnant with results greater than have 
yet been achieved. The wheel of progress has but just 
fairly started. It is rolling toward you, my young friends. 
Have you thought of it % It will soon be upon you. Have 
you ever thought that the world will soon be yours, with 
all its wealth and treasure, its pomp and splendor, its gov- 
ernments, laws, kingdoms, religions, philosophies, schools ; 
its agriculture, commerce, arts, manufacturers, sciences, 
offices, honors, distinctions, principles 1 Have you thought 

2 



26 WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH THE FUTURE ? 

that all, yes all, of that great, glittering, glorious thing 
which we call the world, will soon be yours, to use as you 
please— the legacy of the past bequeathed to your hands ? 
If not, it is time you had thought of it. Your fathers and 
mothers will stay but little longer. Many of them are 
tottering now on the brink of the grave. A few days, and 
all will be yours. What will you do with it ? Will you 
preserve its institutions of freedom, benevolence, learning, 
and religion ? Will you cultivate well its fields and 
shops, and nurse its commerce, which now binds all nations 
together ? Will you teach well its schools, inspire its 
youth with noble principles of piety and affection % Will 
you endow its colleges, fill its professorships, superintend 
its institutions of charity % Will you elect its officers of 
trust, administer justice, make laws, ordain decrees for na- 
tions 1 Will you establish boundaries, rear up states, form 
governments, and preserve the liberties of the people ? 
Will you perform the sacred offices of religion, form 
churches, build sanctuaries, and fill the sacred desks with 
devout and pious men, who will administer the holy func- 
tions of their office in the fear of God and the love of men ? 
Will you do all this, yea, all that is to be done in this wide 
world ? You must do it, or it will not be done. There 
will be nobody else to do it. Are you preparing your- 
selves for this arduous, but glorious task % Are you culti- 
vating your minds, endowing your hearts with great and 
good principles of action, principles of morality and re- 
ligion? getting ready with stout, cheerful spirits for the 
work before you % Say, belle of folly and fashion, beau 



AN ANSWER DEMANDED. 27 

of the toilet and bail-room, reader of romance, visitor of 
saloons, lounger on couches, loiterer in shades, adorner of 
brothels, supporter of bars, scoffer of work, profaner of re- 
ligion, despiser of law, breaker of the Sabbath, waster of 
time, and destroyer of body and soul ; say, one and all 
of you, say, in the shining face of heaven, and in the pres- 
ence of the great world which is descending into your 
hands, what are you doing to prepare yourselves for the 
discharge of the solemn and glorious moral duties before 
you ? Stop in your thoughtless and sinful careers, and 
think a moment, just a moment. Will you help to keep 
the world in order, and urge it on apace in its sublime 
progress toward "the good time coming?" or will you 
hang like pestilential vampires to its heels, sucking out its 
moral life-blood and infusing poison in its stead, and retard, 
by the whole weight of your moral pollution and sin, its 
upward course? 

My soul writhes in agony at what I see about me— 
youth in the lawless riot of demented folly, wasting time 
and strength, and mind and heart, in the pursuit of every 
thing but enduring good, as indifferent to the calls of true 
interest as duty, as lost to sober sense as shame, casting 
their idolatrous offering upon the profane altar of the good 
of this world. Oh, youth of glorious privileges, youth of 
free, noble America, rise up and stand for the true and the 
good ! You have no time or strength to waste. Your 
duties are upon you. Evils are staring you in the race. It 
is vours to meet them with a noble defiance, and stay their 
progress of ruin. It is yours to abolish slavery, both men- 



28 DUTIES AND REWARDS OF THE YOUNG. 

tal and physical ; to destroy intemperance ; to revise our 
statutes ; reform our penal code ; make our prisons and 
penitentiaries asylums for the morally sick and insane ; 
exterminate war, and all its concomitant evils, from the 
world ; establish knowledge, religion, and free government 
in the uttermost parts of the earth ; and bequeath to your 
children after you a legacy more rich and glorious than has 
descended upon you. Then your personal duties are not 
any less — yea, they are more ; duties which involve the 
peace and happiness, and affect the very destiny of your 
souls, of those immortal, living, glorious essences, you call 
yourselves, and which came from the hand of the living 
and loving God. 

This is a bird's-eye view of your duties. They are 
coming upon you. Their shadows fall before you ; even 
now they are resting upon you. Though they are and 
bear the name of duties, they are the most delightful 
works to which young, moral intelligences can be called. 
Says a German philosopher, " The two most beautiful 
things in the universe are the starry heavens and the sen- 
timent of duty in the human soul." As that sentiment is 
beautiful, so is the work to which it is called delightful. It 
is a work of sacrifice and effort, of labor and prayer ; but 
ifc is rewarded with cheerfulness, joy, holiness, and an 
antepast of heaven. 



LECTURE II. 

MEDITATION. 

The Seed-thought of Future Usefulness— True Mode of Meditation— Mental 
Impulses— Vacillation, the Ruin of Thousands— Pioneers of a New and Better 
Era— Propriety a Jewel— What Constitutes Virtue — The First Lesson of 
Youth — The Hopes and Glories of Youth — Noble, Self-poised Mentality — Power 
of Temptation— Self-denying Energy— A Truly Xoble Character— A Pattern o 
Excellence. 

I come before you, my young friends, with a most rea- 
sonable thought, the first which should engage your atten- 
tion^ the thought out of which is to spring your after lives, 
the seed- thought of your coming usefulness. May I plant 
it ? Will you lend me your ears to receive it, your minds 
in which to deposit it, your souls to sun it with attention, 
your hearts to water it with the clews of affection, that it 
may spring forth, bud, blossom, and bear the rich fruit of 
beautiful, glorious, happy lives'? Here it is. Take it. 
It is, that life, young life, is commenced, truly, properly 
commenced, when the mind learns to meditate, to meditate 
upon what it is, upon what it would be, upon what it 
ought to be and may be. This is the starting-point of 
true life, mental life, spirit life ; life directed by oneself, 
upward, onward, heavenward ; life well-directed, soul- 
controlled, virtue-crowned, God-honored. To meditate is 



30 TRUE MODE OF MEDITATION". 

to think reasonably, reverentially, and calmly. To think 
is to commence to grow. To grow is to ascend toward 
heaven, to live as becomes a consistent, sentient, moral, 
and immortal being. To grow spiritually is the duty, 
work, and end of life. He who grows not is like a stunted 
tree in a barren soil, beautiless, flowerless, and fruitless. 
No green thing smiles around him, no refreshing spring 
opens within him. Such a life is not life. It is simple, 
barren being, scorched with sun heats, scathed with 
winds, and chilled with blasting colds, untutored, un- 
blessed, unhonored, and uncheered with hope. To learn 
to be thoughtful, to meditate, then, is the first work of 
youth. 

Meditation is here spoken of as opposed to all thought- 
lessness, giddiness, impulsiveness ; as opposed to all hasty, 
irreflective, careless habits of thought, feeling, and action, 
There is in youth in general an impulsiveness, a wild out- 
bursting of native forces, all uncontrolled and free, which 
is highly detrimental to their best interests. And they 
are too apt to forget that these either may, or ought to be 
controlled. They are beautiful, grand, and glorious of 
themselves, even as the wild horse upon the prairie ; but 
their usefulness depends upon their taming, upon the sub- 
missive docility and alacrity with which they yield to the 
honorable and fruitful labors of life. Thus harnessed to 
the noble car of utility and duty, they become majestic 
in their beauty and lovely in their gentle sublimity of 
power. 

By the strong influences of these native, unborn forces 



MENTAL IMPULSES. 31 

of the young soul, youth are too frequently driven from 
passion to passion, from habit to habit, evil to evil, and 
danger to danger, in rapid succession. To-day they are 
borne on the gale of the wildest pleasure ; to-morrow, in 
hot displeasure, they foment discord and strife among 
each other, and nurse jealousies the most ungracious, and 
heart-burnings the most bitter and consuming. To-day 
they are more giddy than the feather tossed in the breeze, 
laughing as though they would burst at mere trifles, shout- 
ing and yelping like a herd of hounds, with as little restraint 
and about as little reflection, giggling, dancing, and grim- 
acing, as though there were no such virtue as modesty, and 
decorum had become wholly obsolete ; to-morrow, in dark- 
ness of spirit, despairing and wretched, because their 
thoughtless, hot-brained insanity of mirth has failed to 
give them peace and permanent joy, they wail over their 
luckless lot, and half curse their fate and stars and the day 
of their birth. To-day they plan some scene of merri- 
ment, some revel or riot, some bacchanal hilarity or epicu- 
rian gorge, some round of sport, or opportunity for giving 
vent to some darling passion, appetite, or habit, and 
indulge the imagination in all its lewd, wild revelings, 
about the objects of their thoughts ; to-morrow they mur- 
mur because every thing went wrong, or are wholly occu- 
pied in attempting to conceal, or palliate something said, 
or done, or are full of regrets about the mistakes and blun- 
ders of yesterday. They laugh or moan, dance or cry, 
sing or bewail, and give full vent and free rein to what- 
ever impulse of feeling happens to be uppermost, changing 



32 VASCILLATION THE RUIN OF THOUSANDS. 

more often than the wind, and reflecting as little upon 
their variations. Now the meditation that is counseled is 
the very opposite of all this, the antipode of this reckless, 
uncontrolled impulsiveness. This hot-brained haste has 
hurried on thousands of our most talented youth to 
wretchedness and utter ruin. Could they be called from 
the obscurity, depravity, and death into which they have 
been driven, they would come a long army of diamond 
souls, bedimmed and besotted in the dust and filth of 
earth. It would make angels weep to behold the array 
of ruin. The embryos of philanthropists, scholars, ora- 
tors, statesmen, divines, rulers, kings and queens, would 
be seen in the solemn train. Dreary and sad the spec- 
tacle ! To this host of sinburnt souls must daily additions 
be made, unless the youth of to-day learn to take rational 
heed to their steps, and meditate upon their ways. 

The times call for high-born, self-controlled youth. 
The age beseeches for holy meditation, and calm resolu- 
tion to its high duties, on the part of the rising generation. 
Nations are begging in solemn earnestness for nobler lead- 
ers. States are asking for wisdom and prudence to sit 
in their chairs of authority. The masses of mankind, 
bound by the chains forged in their own passion- fires, are 
crying for deliverance. Who shall answer these calls, but 
the youth of to-day? Who shall learn to control the 
world, and bear it upward, by first controlling themselves, 
and stepping, with eye bent above, upon the ladder of 
progress, but the youth of the nineteenth century ? Never 
before were the calls upon the young so powerful and dis- 



PIONEERS OF A NEW AND BETTEB KiiA. 66 

tinct to be the self-marshaled pioneers of a new and better 
era. The watch- word of that era must be self-government, 
instituted and established in the court of the soul by 
solemn meditation. Meditation should sit on the throne 
of the mind as the counselor of the mental powers ; and 
thus, by early habits of obedience, even the passions will 
become powers of noble bearing and lofty mien, con- 
tributing an energy and determination that will wring 
victory out of every conflict, and success out of every 
struggle. 

No reasonable objection can be made to the merriments, 
sports, and joys of youth ; not even to its gleesomeness 
and out-leaping buoyancy of spirit. The objection lies 
against the impulsiveness of feeling with which these things 
are indulged in. The feelings come forth as wild masters, 
reckless and headstrong, and not as servants subdued, but 
strong and joyous. They should be submissive and obe- 
dient children of the will, yielding to its dictates, and 
doing its bidding with alacrity and power. Then the 
service they would render would be high and noble, the 
joy they would inspire rich and ecstatic. They would 
make the will more vigorous, the intellect more active, the 
affections more warm and deep, and the moral sense more 
vivid and strong. They should be made teachable and 
obedient, so they should be cool when commanded, resolute 
when called upon, ready to obey at all times the dictates 
of propriety. 

Propriety is a jewel of the first water. Its graces are 
rich and rare. The youth who wears them is lovely and 

2* 



34 PBOPRIETY A JEWEL. 

honored, and meditates well his ways. There is a time 
and place for every thing good; and in its time and place 
it is good ; out of them, it is evil. 

Merriment at a funeral, or in the hour of worship, is 
not only disgusting, but painfully abhorrent to all our 
kind and respectful feelings. There is a simple and beau- 
tiful propriety, pleasing to all, which gives grace to the 
manners, beauty to the person, sweetness to the disposi- 
sition, and loveliness to the whole being, which all should 
strive to possess. It is to be neither too gay nor too 
grave ; too gleesome nor too sad ; nor either of these at 
improper places. It is to be mirthful without being silly ; 
joyous, without being foolish; sober, without being des- 
ponding ; to speak plainly without giving offense ; be 
grave without casting a shadow over others. In fine, it is 
to be just what every body loves and nobody dislikes, 
and just what makes us and others happy. This is pro- 
priety ; and those who possess this richest flowering vir- 
tue of the soul, which breathes ambrosial sweetness along 
every walk of life, get the credit of possessing its counter- 
part, that rare quality of character honored everywhere, 
humbly christened " common sense," universally acknowl- 
edged to be the best of all sense. 

Now, impulsiveness is absolute death to propriety, and 
a mortal enemy to common sense. It is always out of 
order, one side of the straight and narrow path, unpleasant 
to somebody, and unjust to some feeling. 

To exhibit at all times the virtue of strict propriety, 
one must have every feeling in the most thorough and 



WHAT CONSTITUTES VIRTUE. 35 

complete obedience to the purest rectitude and the most 
enlightened judgment. Our natural feelings are good ; all 
our gushing sympathies, our tender sensibilities, are good 
and beautiful, and are the proper bases on which to build 
great and holy virtues. But they are not virtues of them- 
selves, and we deserve no credit for their possession. 
They are gifts from the Parent Hand, and devoutly 
thankful should we be for their possession. The impulsive 
sympathy of the human heart is not a virtue. The spon- 
taneous affections are not virtues. These are but the 
natural waters that flow freely from the springs within. 
To become virtues they must be chastened and trained to 
act, when and where and in such directions as enlightened 
judgment and moral sense shall determine. They must 
become the obedient children of the will, and be fixed on 
worthy objects. They must be refined and subdued to a 
sweet and all-pervading tenderness ; refined by the medi- 
tative powers of the soul ; refined by thought, by reflec- 
tion, by effort, struggling by resistance of their impetu- 
osity, by the soul's own resolute determination to master 
itself, and bring all its native forces into the service of 
virtue. 

Sometimes to be still requires more virtue than to act. 
When the rich fruits, for which our desires clamor, hang 
temptingly on the boughs before us and within our reach, 
when all we have to do is to reach forth our hand and 
pluck and eat ; when anger would rise in clamorous affray, 
ambition hold a lawless reign by unjust means ; when 
avarice can bargain in fraud, and fill its coffers in an hour, 



36 THE FIRST LESSON OF YOUTH. 

then to say to these lawless waves, " Peace, be still," and 
be obeyed, requires oftentimes the most sublime resolves 
of virtue. Impetuosity usually overacts. But when all 
its spontaneities are subdued, as has been indicated, and 
made to conform to the dictates of enlightened judgment, 
we see that simple and beautiful propriety of action and 
deportment, which is so delightful everywhere, and which 
throws a spell of fresh and entrancing sweetness around 
its possessor. 

This is the first lesson of youth, and hardest of all to learn, 
to subdue and chasten the inborn impulses of his soul. His 
soaring ambition, his reckless hope, his daring courage, his 
unbridled mirthfulness, all his impetuosities, he should early 
learn, should be held in check by the rein of sober sense. 
The curb and bit must be put on and drawn tightly. And 
this must be done by his own hand. In his hours of medi- 
tation he must form his plan, lay out his work, breathe his 
prayer for victory, and swear eternal fealty to his high 
purpose of right. In the still chambers of thought he 
must rally his moral forces, pledge them to duty, and call 
aid from above in his solemn work. It is his own work. 
No one else can do it for him. Others may assist him by 
encouragement, by advice, and solemn warning ; but the 
work is his own. In the court of the soul it must be 
done. If he has learned this, and formed a resolution so 
to act, he is ready to start life's voyage with safety. He 
may launch out his boat, his rudder is hung, his compass 
is set, his sail is furled. If he has become a meditative 
being, a reflecting, reasoning, determining being, he has 



THE HOPES AND GLORIES OF VOL Iff. 37 

about him an element of safely, found nowhere but in 
himself. His wild impulses are bridled. He becomes 
calm, subdued, and dignified. The man, the true, the 
noble, Godlike man, begins to show itself in him. He 
has mastered himself, the most obdurate, willful, and reck- 
less enemy he has in the wide world ; or so nearly done 
it, that he has established the high council of law and 
right in his soul, to whose reign he has pledged an honor- 
able fealty. He is ready to start a true life, to build a 
temple to virtue and honor, in which angels may deHght 
to dwell. 

Oh, how beautiful is the youth, who holds in check the 
impetuous forces within him, and makes them obedient to 
the calls of duty, propriety, and refinement ! And, 
indeed, this is refinement ! Even refinement, that charm 
of charms, which, worn about youth, makes it un- 
speakably interesting to -all the world. To whom have 
poets dedicated their sweetest strains ? To refined and 
virtuous youth. For whom hath music poured its 
most charming melodies ? To noble youth. \Vhom 
hath art carved in marble, and painted in living light on 
the canvas? Beauteous youth. For whom are reared 
the halls of science? For aspiring youth. To whom 
does the states and kingdoms of the world look with anx- 
ious expectancy? To faithful youth. The world has 
thrown its great arms about its youth, and lovingly be- 
seeches them to be wise and good, to reverently meditate 
upon the solemn realities in and about them. 

To give a worthy response to this general and abiding 



88 NOBLE, 

interest in youth, it is well that every one should have a 
living example of propriety and refinement before him ; 
some one upon whom he can gaze continually, and receive 
constant supplies of noble influence. Who has not met 
with people whose every word is so well-timed, whose 
every action is so appropriate, whose every look beams 
with the evidences of such inward propriety, that they 
possess almost the power of captivation ? Such we occa- 
sionally meet, and we meet them with open arms, and 
give them at once the confidence of old and long-tried I 
friends. They should be our examples. We should im- 
press their characters upon our own hearts. Now, this 
charm that dwells about such persons is the result of this 
self-directing, inward control, of which we are speaking. 
He who would be interesting to others, who would be truly 
great ; who would possess a strong, noble, indwelling vir- 
tue, must control himself. And to do this he must medi- 
tate upon himself, study his own soul as he would a book, 
and determine all his internal forces according to enlight- 
ened judgment and rectitude. We ought to be capable 
of doing just as we wish to do. We ought to be so faith- 
ful to ourselves, so thoughtful, so ever guarded, so always 
ready, as to be able to determine our course of action, and 
control our deportment at will. What study of oneself, 
what thoughtfulness, what meditation upon the true excel- 
lencies of character, and what summoning of all the guards 
and forces of virtue within, are requisite to attain such 
control ! 

Let no youth think that this meditative effort is im- 



POWER OF TEMPTATION. 39 

necessary in his case, because he is blessed with a well- 
balanced mental organization. An even, or equal balance 
among the mental powers, is often like the balance of a 
pair of scales. A feather's weight will determine it to 
one side. So in a mind of even development : a little in- 
fluence will determine it to vice, and a little more to crime. 
Christ's was a perfect mind ; it possessed a perfect balance 
among the mental powers; and yet he was tempted, 
strongly drawn by the forces of circumstances, and found 
it necessary to summon all his aids to virtue, and spend 
days and weeks in silent and lonely meditation and prayer. 
The wilderness saw his wrapt meditation, and the mount- 
ain heard his fervent prayer. Who else has communed 
with himself and his God with such intensity and con- 
stancy ? Shall any of us then deem meditation unne- 
cessary, because we have strong and well-balanced minds ? 
" Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall." 
Let none give heed to that awful, damnable, moral heresy, 
that outward circumstances must be all-controlling. If it 
were so, then we could never have had a Christ. If it 
were so, then Washington would never have resigned the 
throne of absolute dominion in a nation's heart. If it 
were so, the world never would 4iave known the benevo- 
lent Howard. It was resistance of outward circumstances 
that made these men and made Christ. It is resistance of 
evil influence that makes virtue. America owes its free- 
dom and its civil and religious blessings to a resistance of 
evil circumstances. Say not that there is no power in the 
human soul to resist both outward and inward evil. It is 



40 SELF-DENYING ENERGY. 

moral heresy, rank and black. Man can meditate upon 
his ways, and by forethought and resistance beat down the 
barriers to virtue that rise in his path, and be what he 
ought to be, a student and master of himself and the 
world. Phrenology declares this. The Bible declares 
this. Universal human experience declares this ; and 
reason knows it. When this is attained, the highest order 
of virtue is reached, a great moral force is acquired, with- 
out which there can be neither great virtue nor perfection 
of character. Says the great and good Dr. Channing on 
this subject : " It is worthy of especial remark, that with- 
out this moral energy, resisting passion and impulse, our 
tenderest attachments degenerate more or less into weak- 
nesses and immoralities ; sometimes prompting us to sym- 
pathize with those whom we love in their errors, preju- 
dices, and evil passions ; sometimes inciting us to heap 
upon them injurious praises and indulgences ; sometimes 
urging us to wrong or neglect others, that we may the 
more enjoy or serve our favorites ; and sometimes poison- 
ing our breasts with jealousy or envy, because our affec- 
tion is not returned with equal warmth. The principle of 
love, whether exercised toward our relatives or our coun- 
try, whether manifested in courtesy or compassion, can 
only become virtue, can only acquire purity, consistency, 
serenity, dignity, when imbued, swayed, cherished, en- 
larged by the power of a virtuous will, by a self-denying 
energy. It is inward force, power over ourselves, which is 
the beginning and end of virtue." 

This is the power and dominion we should strive to ob- 



A TRULY NOBLE CHARACTER. 41 

lain. It should be the great object of every youth. It is 
a work of great moral grandeur ; and 'is the result of the 
most dignified and sublime action of the will, of judg- 
ment directing the course, and conscience resolutely de- 
claring that it must be complied with. It is this self- 
control by the moral energies of the understanding which 
is counseled as the object of meditation. And more 
stress is laid upon it, because here lies the chief beauty of 
every action, the rarest excellency to be attained by the 
human soul. Whatever in human character is worthy of 
confidence, to which we bow with deep and holy respect, 
is to be attributed to the presence of this inward moral 
force. 

When we see a youth purely and truly honest, amid 
strong temptations ; calm and composed amid the stormy 
elements of passion ; serene and pure amid the incite- 
ments to lustful desire; unmoved and courageous amid 
alarming dangers ; resigned and trusting in the hour of 
sorrow ; patient under severe trials and burdens ; self- 
possessed at all times, saying to passion, to appetite, to 
all the impulses of his young and ardent nature, " Peace, 
be still !" and resolutely forcing them to obey, we see a 
sight more truly noble than any warrior or conqueror the 
world ever nursed on her bloody bosom, and one that in 
the eye of God is greater than any king or emperor that 
ever sat upon the throne of ambition's dominion. 

Who will strive for this inward control, this mastery of 
self, this enthronement of conscience over all the impulses 
of our nature? Let him meditate long, well, and deeply, 



42 A PATTEillN T OF EXCELLENCE, 

upon what he is, and what he ought to be ; upon virtue, 
duty, life, and destiny. Let him early learn to hold coun- 
cil within himself over every desire and impulse that rises 
within him, over every action of the soul, and see that at 
all times obedience is yielded to the dictations of this 
council. To be successful in this, he must be always 
watchful, always guarded, always striving for the more 
perfect attainment of the great object before him. At 
home and abroad, in the field and in the shop, in the 
hour of pleasure and the season of sorrow, in pros- 
perity's day and adversity's night, in confidential in- 
tercourse with companions and friends, and in the treat- 
ment of enemies and defamers, he should enthrone his will, 
and put forth every power within him, to be just what he 
should be. Has he a pattern of excellence before him, 
some friend, some acquaintance, some illustrious character, 
whom he would imitate 1 Then let that character be per- 
petually before him, like a Divine Omniprescence. Let 
him remember the perfect pattern, the " Man Christ 
Jesus," " the One altogether lovely, the chiefest among ten 
thousand," and strive always to conform to that pattern. 
It is within the power of nearly every youth to be great 
and good, to be pure and excellent, to moderate the ve- 
hemence of every desire, chasten every feeling, subdue 
every passion, restrain every impulse, and curb every way- 
ward tendency. All that is necessary to accomplish this, 
is firmly to determine upon the object, and persevere in 
carrying it out. 



ECTURE III 

THE DANGEES OF IMPULSE. 

The Dangers of Impulse — Obstacles to Yirtue — Evils of Ungoverned Passions — 
Criminality the Fruit of Impulse — Restraint of the Animal Passions — Enthrone- 
ment of Morality and Intelligence — Self-government the Soul of Progress — Pub- 
lic Evil flows from Individual Vice — Our Future in the Hands of our Youth. 

Ox the outposts of the human soul, its great Author has 
wisely stationed a sentinel, whose duty it is to watch for 
danger. When faithful, it warns of both physical and 
moral danger. Its eye is as an eagle's, and its heart sen- 
sitive, and easily alarmed. But, strange as it may seem, 
many youth have deemed it cowardly to listen to the 
warnings of this noble watchman of the mental family, 
and have turned a deaf ear, till the watchman has ceased 
his cry, and the sacred soul-sanctuary has been overrun by 
enemies from without and within. 

Youthful reader, are you one of this unwise number 1 
Does the cry of this sentinel ring through the arches of 
your soul, warning of the danger of impulse, and rehears- 
ing in your ears the miserable results of its impetuosities ? 
If not, call him to duty ; for above all things else, you need 
his friendly admonitions. 

The dangers of impulsiveness are not chimerical. They 
are real, positive, and awful. Who does not know that 



44: OBSTACLES TO VIRTUE. 

the devil has pitched his camp within us, and made our 
impulses his imps of ruin 1 What else but impulse led 
our Eden mother from the bower of innocence and virtue ? 
Where else but on the tree of impulse grew the fruit she 
ate, which turned to ashes on her lips ] What else was 
the " knowledge of evil" she acquired but the results of 
impulse ; and what else was the " knowledge of good" 
thus obtained but the blessings of self-control ? Has her 
sad experience given us no warning ? Has the recklessness 
of the whole world given us no alarm ? It is time to take 
warning. This age is pregnant with some great good. 
What is it ? It travails for delivery. Feel we not already, 
therefore, inspiration of its embryo good ? Is it not a 
deliverer for youth, a divine lawgiver for the young soul, 
to re-establish in it the Eden-trampled throne of self-do- 
minion, to crown thereon imperial Right and Duty as king 
and queen, who shall bridle the impulses for the soul's ever- 
lasting servants ? Let the warnings of the past, and the de- 
velopments of the present, bid us hope for so great a good. 
Little are many youth aware of the obstacles to the ap- 
proach of this " good time coming," the obstacles which 
they permit to exist within themselves. There are thou- 
sands of youth of good motives, generous desires, honorable 
ambition, who hate meanness, despise a vicious course of 
life, who are yet in very great danger from their impulses. 
A temptation a little stronger than they have met, an evil 
a little more seductive, a moment a little more unguarded, 
may work their ruin ; or if not work absolute ruin, may 
plant thorns of moral poison that will sting them with a 



EVILS OF TJNGOVERNED PASSIONS. 45 

thousand regrets, and cause the blush to mantle the faces 
of all their best friends. 

All very impulsive persons live perpetually among 
thorns. They do and say things almost daily that cause 
themselves, or somebody else, most sore disquietude. 
When they are so stupid as not to see the improprieties 
of their own course, they may be causing frequent and 
deep wounds in the hearts of all who love them best. How 
often an impulsive person wounds the feelings of his truest 
friends ! His thoughtless words, poisoned, it may be, with 
the gall-drops of a fit of anger or jealousy, envy or pride, 
or a momentary flash of displeasure, may cut like two- 
edged swords to the heart's core. Or, wanting that sweet 
refinement given by self-control, their very roughness and 
harshness may " grate horrible discord" in the ears of 
those that love him, and would gladly be charmed by his 
sweet words of wisdom and goodness. 

How much, oh, how much unhappiness is thus caused 
by the uncontrolled waywardness of impulsive natures ! 
If we were to probe the hearts of all refined and sensitive 
natures, and express what we should find, we should reveal 
a great world of misery that is all unexposed to human 
gaze now. In the secret, silent chambers of the purest, 
loveliest souls, these sorrows are felt, and felt with a keen- 
ness all unknown to less refined and sensitive minds. And 
what is worse, we thus cause our loveliest and most truly 
excellenl friends to suffer. How mortifying is the thought 
hat such friends arc pierced with anguish, occasioned by 
an* want of self-control, by the reckless impulses we nurse 



46 CRIMINALITY THE FRUIT OF IMPULSE. 

within us. Go into the homes of men, where the world's 
eye is shut out, and see the desecration of love's hallowed 
sanctuaries ; see companions estranged ; see brothers and 
sisters living as strangers to each other, performing none 
of those little offices of love that are so sweet and delec- 
table ; see children growing up in an atmosphere of icy 
coldness, and learn the evils of ungoverned passions. Go 
again into the w r orld, and witness the strifes, animosities, 
quarrels, and disgusting scenes of neighborhood disturb- 
ances, and another similar lesson may be learned. Friend- 
ships are broken, which long years of faithful confidence 
and good offices had cemented ; and affections are estranged, 
which a thousand cords of tenderness had bound. There 
is hardly a danger to which youth is exposed, to which the 
great avenue does not open from the fruitful source of some 
passion-fire. Read the history of criminals, of all the 
most unfortunate classes of beings, and you will find that 
impulse was the rock on which they split. Their first di- 
gressions from rectitude were not premeditated. They 
were the works of haste, of thoughtless impetuosity. They 
were often yielded to as innocent, were even regarded 
as sprightly, as evidences of wit, or genius, or strong affec- 
tion, and not unfrequently have been imitated by admiring 
companions. There is a wild, untamed beauty about these 
impulsive feelings, that often causes youth to admire and 
imitate them. And they frequently have much the ap- 
pearance of virtue in their exhibitions, when they are fast 
leading those who are nursing them on to ruin. Look at 
the thousand sorrowful cases of intemperance, spread like 



RESTRAINT OF THE ANIMAL PASSIONS. 47 

wrecks on the ocean's bottom, all over the length and 
breadth of our land ; look at the thousand victims of lust 
of both sexes still more disgusting and degraded ; at the 
unfortunate victims of criminal desire and unhallowed pas- 
sion for confirmation of what has been said. Yea, look at 
the late most deplorable case of Professor Webster, over 
which a nation has mourned, and which has blasted the 
hopes and happiness of a refined and beautiful family, and 
believe there is danger in impulse. The early impulsive- 
ness of the late Henry Clay, a genius of lofty powers and 
commanding brilliancy, kept him from the presidential 
chair, and from almost unexampled admiration and glory. 
Living statesmen might be mentioned of equal power and 
eminence, whose glory is tarnished, and whose throne in 
the nation's heart is feeble and tottering, from the same 
cause. Oh, that youth could understand these things ! 
Many of them are encouraging the most ruthless maraud- 
ers in their own breasts. Almost every circle of youth 
exhibits examples of unbridled impulses. A want of re- 
flection, of thought, of moral force, is visible almost every- 
where. 

This argues that vice, crime, and wretchedness are to fill 
up the next page of human history. We talk of reforma- 
tion, of progress ; but little can be our advancement, till 
youth are taught a strong and vigorous resistance of the 
rude dominance of the passions. Here is the very place 
to begin. First of all come the appetites, the general 
feeders of animal desire. These are pampered in a thou- 
sand ways and forms from earliest childhood. Thev foster 



48 ENTHRONEMENT OF MORALITY AND INTELLIGENCE 

a pervading animalism. They stimulate the propensities. 
They feed the fires of passion. The influence of pampered 
appetite is a viewless miasma of disease, bringing the en- 
tire mind under its death torpor. To make a character 
what it should be, the moral and intellectual nature should 
be enthroned. The man should rule the animal. To es- 
tablish and preserve such a government within us, is the 
noblest work of human attainment. To resist strong im- 
pulses, to subdue powerful passions, to silence the voice 
of vehement desire, is a strong and noble virtue. And the 
virtue rises in height, beauty, and grandeur, in proportion 
to the strength of the impulses subdued. 

True virtue is not always visible to the gaze of the 
world. It is often still and calm, like the rolling tide of a 
mighty river. " There are seasons," says the great author 
already quoted, " when to be still, demands immeasurably 
higher strength than to act. Composure is often the high- 
est result of power. Think you it demands no power to 
calm the stormy elements of passion, to moderate the 
vehemence of desire, to throw off the load of dejection, to 
suppress every repining thought when the dearest hopes 
are withered, and to turn the wounded spirit from danger- 
ous reveries and wasting grief, to the quiet discharge of 
ordinary duties'? Is there no power put forth when a 
man, stripped of his property, of the fruits of a life's 
labor, quells discontent and gloomy forebodings, and 
serenely and patiently returns to the tasks which Provi- 
dence assigns 1 I doubt not that the all-seeing eye of God 
sometimes discerns the sublimest human energy under a 



SELF-GOVERNMENT THE SOUL OF PROGRESS. 49 

form and countenance which, by their composure and tran- 
quillity, indicate to the human spectator only passive vir- 
tues." Individuals who have attained such power, how- 
ever they may be viewed among men, are among the great 
ones of God's children. They are the Washingtons of 
humanity. 

One of the prominent missions of this age seems to be 
to develop the individual man. The individual in times 
past has been lost in the mass. Now he is beginning to be 
recognized. A single man in the eye of God is as import- 
ant as a race. Man is a microcosm. He has a world in 
himself. He is an epitome universe. To develop a race, 
each individual must be developed. The development of 
the individual effects the development of the race. So the 
government of the individual effects the government of 
the race. Government is at the bottom of progress. 
The state or nation that has the best government pro- 
gresses most. So the individual who governs best himself 
makes the most rapid progress. Progress is a necessary 
result of true government. The native energies of the 
human soul press it to activity. Activity is its primal 
law. When these energies are controlled, they rush on- 
ward in the path of progress with the celerity of thought. 
Nothing prevents their movement. Like the calm rolling 
river, they press onward, filling full the channel in w T hich 
they are destined to move. No counter-currents of passion 
and back-eddies of disorderly impulse keep them back. No 
juttings in of bluffs, no settings back of coves, caused by 
the first storms of impulse, prevent their steady career. 

3 



50 PUBLIC EVIL FLOWS FROM INDIVIDUAL VICE. 

Government is but another name for harmony; and 
harmony but another name for heaven. Mental harmony 
is the goal of human perfectibility. It is the balance of 
all the mental powers in subjection to the will. It is the 
result of the self-control we are so earnestly recommend- 
ing. Individual harmony is necessary to effect the social 
harmony of the masses. We complain of the antagonisms 
of society, the distrust, animosity, and degredation, all 
through the social compact. This is wrong ; the fault is 
with the individual. The inharmony is in the single soul. 
Make the individual harmonious and you make the com- 
munity harmonious. Is the water of the river bitter 1 It 
is so because the springs from the mountains send forth 
bitter streams. Chide not the river till the springs are 
sweetened. 

Does society need reorganizing ? Is its present organ- 
ization base and antagonistic 1 It is because antagonisms 
exist in the individual. Organize society upon a closer 
basis; it will be but bringing firebrand in closer prox- 
imity with firebrand, and raising higher the flame of 
discord. Society is wrong in its organization, fundament- 
ally wrong. But it is so because of the wrong in its indi- 
viduals. Our social organization is on a level with the 
individuals composing it. Organize a true government in 
each individual soul ; make harmony there and social har- 
mony will follow, and follow just in proportion to indi- 
vidual progress. 

Where shall we begin in the great reformation, except 
with the youth ? Society is daily passing into their hands. 



OUR FUTURE IM THE HANDS OF OUR YOUTH. 51 

Its great concerns will soon all be theirs. To reform it 
they must reform themselves. To reform themselves 
they must control themselves. Reform means control. 
The drunkard reforms when he controls his appetite ; the 
libertine, when he controls his lust ; the thief, when he 
masters his covetous desire. The great work of human 
reform, in all its length and breadth, its height and depth, 
its magnitude and importance, is comprehended in the 
self-control here recommended to youth. Oh. youth of 
America ! See you the vast importance of this enthrone- 
ment of reason and conscience, this establishment of law 
and order within the realms where you are the rightful 
rulers 1 See you that your own prosperity, peace, and 
happiness, that the harmony and progress of the social 
compact, and the usefulness, power, and glory of your 
country, are to be measured by the degree of wisdom and 
moral force with which you control and direct the mighty 
and immortal powers which God has placed in your hands'? 
Be entreated to perpetual vigilance in your own behalf. 
Be pointed to the aids about you for assistance in this 
work ; to the experience of the world, the wisdom of age, 
the instructions of science, the great examples of virtue, 
the Word of God, the name and character of Christ, the 
teachings and spirit of His gospel, the still sanctuaries of 
the soul in its calm moods of thought. All bid you medi- 
tate upon your ways, and be wise and virtuous, that you 
may grow into temples of spiritual beauty and everlast- 
ing peace. 



LECTURE IV. 

FORMATION OF CHARACTER. 

Life is for a Purpose— A useless Life— What is Character ?— Character Self-made 
— Duty of Parents — Chance Character always Evil — Choice of Yice or Virtue 
open to all — Will or Circumstance Clothe the Mind — Goodness the only Source 
of Happiness — Character is "catching" — Inter-relation of Minds — Power of 
silent Influence — Way to do Good to the World — Molding Immortal Minds— 
Every One can be a Benefactor — All intended to be Happy — A vicious Course 
one of Difficulty — Yice respects Yirtue — Character the Soul's Habiliment- 
Character Eternal. 

It is well to pause on the threshold of life, and ask our- 
selves why we live. Life means something. It is charged 
with eternal significance. It is big with sublime realities. 
Every step is a word, every day is a sentence, every week 
is an oration, every year is a book, full of meaning as the 
sun is of light. Life is a book ; and we write in it some- 
thing, be it much or little, sense or nonsense. And what 
we write we can not un write. Our pen is time — our ink is 
indelible. What we write we write, and do it for eter- 
nity. Life is not mean — it is grand. If it is mean to 
any, he makes it so. God made it glorious. Its channel 
He paved with diamonds. Its banks He fringed with flow- 
ers. He overarched it with stars. Around it He spread 
the glory of the physical universe — suns, moons, worlds, 
constellations, systems — all that is magnificent in motion, 
sublime in magnitude, and grand in order and obedience. 
God would not have attended life with this broad march 



LIFE IS FOR A PURPOSE. 53 

of grandeur, if it did not mean something. He would not 
have descended to the blade c the dew-drop, and 

the dust-atom, if every moment of life were not a letter 

ell out some word that should bear the burden of a 
thought. How much life means, words refuse to tell, be- 
cause they can not. Youth have stepped upon its t: 
old. Ought they not to ask, wh; — :" r what 

object ? The hung around with 

flowery emblems, to indicate that it j purpose. 

The mystery of our being, the necessity of action, the rela- 

f cause v the dependence of one thing upon 

another, the mutual influence and affinity of all things 
sure us that life is for a purpose to which every outward 
thing doth point. But do men study th: ig of life ? 

Do they find out tor what they live \ Some there are, 
scores of them, who appear to live as brutes live, for naught 
but because life is in them, and remains there. They have 
an instinctive disposition to live, and so they do live. But 
for what, they know not. nor seem to care. They neither 

hat they are nor wha: ight to be. They take 

hemn though : * - thought of to-mor- 

They live tor what ? Ask them. For nothing. 
Their lives are the sport of what is around them. See 
that thistle-down dancing on the breeze, hither, thither, up, 
down. It is cm emblem of their lives. They aim at noth- 
ing. They live for no purpose. They move by no un- 
varying principle. They carry out no plan of lii 
have no plan. Life to them is a mazy web-work of cir- 
cumstance no mark at which to strike. They 



54 A USELESS LIFE. 

run, and gain no race. They work, and accomplish noth- 
ing. They speak, but who regards it ! They make much 
noise and bustle, but who care for them, more than to get 
out of their way 1 They have friends, but they are worth 
nothing. They live among neighbors, but they are nui- 
sances. If they stay at home, nothing is done ; if they go 
abroad, nobody values them. They walk about among 
men as other people, but they leave no track behind them. 
Their judgment is not respected, their friendship is not 
wanted, their hatred is not feared. Nobody cares for them 
but the politician at the election, and the sexton at their 
burial. "What are they 1 To themselves, nothing ; to the 
world, nothing. And yet they work as hard as any body, 
talk, and feel as much as their neighbors, and have a great 
deal more trouble. Many such there are ; and they seem 
to be just what they are, because they live for nothing. 
They have not learned the meaning of life. They have 
nothing in particular to be or do, and hence are and do no- 
thing in particular. They have no character to form or 
sustain, no profession to fill, no trade to follow. Many of 
them are industrious, well-meaning people, of fair abilities 
and respectable feelings. But they lack the one thing need- 
ful, an object in life, something to live for. 

No youth who has learned the meaning of life is am- 
bitious to fill the place of such people. Are you, my reader % 

But let us ask, what is the purpose of life ? We answer, 
it is the formation of a genuine character. By ■ this we 
mean a real inbred cast of soul, not a reputation ; for 
one may have a reputation for that which he is not. 



55 

The knave may be reputed an honest man. The vil- 
lain may be believed to be good. The hypocrite may 
have a reputation for what he appears to be. The fop, 
the dandy of the tailor, may pass for a veritable man. 

Character is what a man is ; reputation is what he 
is thought to be. Character is within ; reputation is 
without. Character is always real ; reputation may be 
false. Character is substantial and enduring; reputation 
may be vapory and fleeting. Character is at home ; rep- 
utation is abroad. Character is in a man's own soul ; 
reputation is in the minds of others. Character is the 
solid food of life ; reputation is the dessert. Character is 
what gives a man value in his own eyes ; reputation is 
what he is valued at in the eyes of others. Character is 
his real worth ; reputation is his market-price. 

If the attainment of reputation was the true object of 
life, it might be one magnificent game of deception and 
hypocrisy. Men would smile in villainy, and pray with 
the hand on the dagger's hilt. He who lives for fame is 
as likely to be a devil as a man, and far more so. He is 
a beggar, asking that which he ought to possess at the hands 
of others. He lives for the shadow, and not the reality. 
Fame that is lived for is a bubble, hollow and thin, which 
bursts in attempting to secure it. To live for fame is to 
miss it. To make this the object of life is to tail. Real 
&me, that is substantial, is that which follows, not that 
which is run after ; that which comes, not that which is 
sought. He who lives for fame lives in vain, for he ends 
life poor as he commenced it, and often poorer, for he has 



56 CHARACTER SELF-MADE. 

robbed himself of innocence, and clothed his soul in the red 
garments of guilt. He has sacrificed his soul's health for 
the disease of sin. 

No, not for this should man live, but for real character, 
for worth of soul, for wealth of heart, for the diamond-dust 
of mind. He should live to be what be ought to be, and 
do what he ought to do ; live to make his soul great and 
good, to clothe it in the garments of light, and fill it with 
the warmth of love. Then fame will come delighted to 
crown him with her wreaths of honor. Then reputation 
will shake hands with character, and the twain will be one 
forever. 

A man's character is what he makes for himself; it is 
his own workmanship ; it is the statue of the man of his 
conception, which he carves in the studio within. It is the 
man he paints on the soul's canvas. God makes the soul ; 
man makes the character. The child-soul is without char- 
acter. It is a rudimental mental existence, pure as the 
driven snow, beautiful as a cherub angel, spotless, guileless, 
and innocent. It is the chart of a man, yet to be filled up 
with the elements of a character. Those elements are first 
marked on it by its parents or guardians. They limb out 
the first rude sketch of a character. With what delicacy 
should they use the pencil of parental influence, in sketch- 
ing the outlines of their child's character ! The young soul 
is soft, and the lines they make are deep, and not easily 
erased. It is a man they form. Responsible work ! 
It is an immortal soul they work upon, destined to survive 
the wreck of matter and the crush of worlds, and bear on 



DITTY OF paez: 1 

rever. a: 3 of their work. 

Solemn thoughts ! Parents, what are you doing ? Mak- 
ing folly-marks on thy child's soul ] Scribbling for sport ? 
Blackening it with passion ? Staining it with error ? In- 
Dtly casting it out among the circumstances of a 
crazy world, to be marred and defaced by such marks as 
make upon it ? Pause in thy work for sober re- 
:n. Open thy soul in prayer for Divine help ; for it 
is on the canvas of God's make that thou art making thy 
marks. Form for your child the outlines of a character 
3 :1 in the sunlight of the celestial world, where 
Ij appear, you will not be ashamed of. 
When a child becomes a youth, it assumes'the forma- 
tion of its own character. It puts in its hand to paint 
with the parents. And gradually it crowds away the pa- 
rental hand, when it takes the whole responsibility itself, 
and becomes its own master. Xow the youth works 
for himself. He has become his own man. His character 
is in his own hands. He molds it as he will. If he does 
U, the joy and the glory are his. If he does it ill, 
now and the shame are his. He can not shuffle off 
risibility. Neither earth nor heaven holds a being 
upon whom he can load it. God made his soul, his parents 
formed for him the outline of a character, and now it is for 
him to fill it up, and finish it. as best he may ; to make it 
a dark pictur and woe, breathing the malaria of 

guilt and shame, or to brighten it with a living beauty and 

.11 make it an ornament for the par". 
heaven. YeSj h is hifl work. Doubt it not, O youth. 

3* 



58 CHANCE CHARACTER ALWAYS EVIL. 

He must make his own character, build himself, rear 
the fabric of that building, in which he shall dwell, and 
which shall be known as his spiritual home. Some say 
that circumstances make character. I grant they do in 
many instances. But who that is wise will trust them % 
Circumstances are blind, brainless, and irresponsible. They 
are more likely to make a bad than a good character, for 
they confer no self-respect nor self-control, without which 
any character is miserably deficient. Characters formed 
by circumstances are much like machine poetry. They 
will do for the sport of mirth, and the torment of the sense 
of the beautiful. But they are horrible things. It makes 
angels weep to look at them. They are the picture of old 
chaos, a mass of confusion. A thousand winds have blown 
together the materials of which they are made. They 
usually lack order, harmony, consistency, and beauty, the 
very elements and essentials of a good character. We had 
a picture of them at the commencement of this discourse — 
those aimless nuisances that live for nothing, and mold, 
and become putrid, about the sewers of the world. If 
ought on earth is despicable, it is these porous masses of 
conglomerated filth and scum that float on the surface of 
society, driven or attracted by every speck of circumstance 
about them. They are purposeless, powerless, enervated 
automatons, playing second fiddle to chance. One brave 
will to resist evil and hold fast to good, is worth a million 
of them. One stout soul, with a resolute determination to 
make its own character, after the pattern of its own high- 
wrought ideal, that, Jackson-like, takes the responsibility 



CHOICE OF VICE OR VIRTUE OPEN TO ALL. 59 

of being what suits its well-former] judgment, is of more 
real significance than an army of them. It will stand 
it them, and defy their power. 

Heed not a moment the sophistical advocate of the om- 
nipotence of circumstances. It is an atheistical sophism, 
as dishonorable to man as to God. It robs both of power, 
and the universe of an intelligent will. It makes men pup- 
pets, dancing to the discordant jargon of circumstances, 
and God the auditor, looking on well pleased with our fan- 
tastic cap h are made because we can not help them, 
as the wires are pulled by the presiding circumstances. 
One moments sober reflection will tell you that you can 
set your foot on circumstance, and preside over yourself. 
You can say to the tempter, i; Begone,*' and compel him to 
depart. You can study the stars, or plow the earth ; read 
the moral lessons of Jesus, or the language of lust from 
a wanton's face; go to the school or the tippling-shop ; 
listen to Socrates or Epicurus, as you please. You can 
will to take the upper or the lower road, the path of virtue 
or of vice. 

Circumstances do control countless thousands, but it is 
not necessarily so. They yield because they do not try 
to oppose. They wage no war with evil. They cast no 
it thorn from a resolute will. It is true, a 
youth may be what he pleases. He may be good or evil, 
be wise or foolish, intelligent or ignorant. He may make 
himself a good or a bad character. He may beautify or 
deface his soul. It is for him to do as he will. Youth 
are their own choosers of character. There are good and 



60 WILL OR CIRCUMSTANCE CLOTHE THE MDSTD. 

bad, high and low, virtuous and vicious. The youth is left 
to his own choice ; or he can close his eyes, fold his arms, 
and let chance clothe his soul with a character. The new- 
born soul is naked. Character is the garment it puts on. 
It must be clothed ; if it clothes not itself, others will clothe 
it. There are two ways to obtain the clothing — will and 
circumstance. Which will you choose, O youth ? You 
can choose a good character, or you can choose a bad one, 
or you can trust to circumstance, and run the risk. It is 
an awfully hazardous risk, and almost sure to lose, or fail. 
Settle it at once, my young reader, which you will choose ; 
settle it early, in wisdom and prayer. The choice is one 
of priceless moment. If a globe of gold, as large as our 
earth, and one of dross, were before you, for you to choose 
which you would have, the choice would not be one mil- 
lionth part so important as the choice of a character. 
What are gold, gems, crowns, scepters, and honors, put on 
with human hands, compared with the character with which 
the soul is clothed. These are well enough, and adminis- 
ter to human happiness or misery according to the circum- 
stances of their possession. But they are not necessary. 
They are trifles that please human children, as toys do 
babies. But they vanish with the using. They are like 
the boys' fire-crackers, which explode with the noise that 
delights. But not so with character. It is the essential of 
happiness. Without a good character happiness is never 
known. All that exalts, ennobles, embellishes, and digni- 
fies humanity — all that confers solid peace, real joy, soul- 
felt satisfaction — all that good men and angels love and 



GOODNESS THE ONLY SOURCE OF HAPPINESS. 61 

admire in human creatures, is blended in the beauty and 
glory of a truly good and genuine character. Whatever 
degree of happiness of " the soul's calm sunshine and heart- 
felt joy" is felt by any man, is the result of a correspond- 
ing degree of goodness in his character. Good men may 
have their trials and sorrows as well as others ; but in and 
through them all there is the sunshine of a holy and lofty 
peace above all clouds, as permanent and glorious as the 
firmament of heaven. Their troubles are the earthly inci- 
dents of strong affections and noble aspirations, which re- 
fine and elevate while they cause pain, so that in the end 
they increase rather than diminish their real happiness. 

There is no happiness except that which results from 
goodness — intellectual, moral, and affectionate goodness — 
or, in other words, from the true, the good, and the affec- 
tionate in character. All the treasures of ten thousand 
worlds like this will not compare in value with one good 
character — with one pure heart, for the production of all 
that is satisfying and blessed. They will not purchase 
peace, nor joy, nor sacred rest, nor the sweet tranquillity 
of an unsullied conscience, nor one single moment's real 
bliss. They can never be exchanged for those golden- 
gloried virtues that blossom all over a good character, like 
the blossoms on a thick bed of roses, and which are as 
rich in the sweet incense that the heart loves most, as the 
flowers are in refreshing fragrance. No, naught can stand 
up to be compared with a good character, either for intrin 
sic beauty, imperishable value, or the production of the 
fruits of solid and enduring serenity and joy of soul. 



62 CHARACTER IS " CATCHING." 

The youth who places a proper estimate upon a good 
character, has learned a lesson that is more valuable to 
him than any thing else possibly can be. He has learned 
the source of his purest joys. 

But the happiness and blessedness of a good character 
are not confined to the sunny chambers of its possessor. 
Character is catching. If one has a good character, he gives 
something of its goodness to all with whom he associates. 
If his heart is radiant with the light of virtue, that light 
gets out, and shines in upon the hearts of others. He can 
scarcely look at another without impressing some mark of 
his own character on the heart of the one upon whom he 
gazes. A man's face is almost always radiant with the 
light of his true character. Character, like murder, will 
out. It can not long be concealed. You might as well 
attempt to chain the lightnings in the black caverns of the 
surcharged cloud, or put a hood over the great bright face 
of the sun, as to lock up a man's character from the sight 
of his fellows. God never designed that it should be. 
Character was made to be seen. It is the government of 
the soul, put on, not only for the comfort and convenience 
of the wearer, but for the pleasure of other people's eyes. 
It is not worn for self alone, for that would be mean, but 
for all by whom it is surrounded. The human soul can 
not be seen, nor do I believe it ever will be by human 
eyes, not even in heaven, but only its garments, which are 
its character. They show, and will show the real state of 
the soul, its form, its power, its purity, love, and mental 
nature. The character will always be visible — here, par- 



ESTEE-BELATION OF MENDS. 63 

tially, in the spirit world, completely. Even now the 
character shines through the gross material of the flesh. 
"The human face divine" is like the dial-plate of a clock ; 
it tells the state and position of the machinery behind. It 
publishes to the world the character of the dweller within. 
It is in vain for any man to think that he hides his charac- 
ter. He may for a few days deceive others with respect 
to its nature ; but the unseen influence which he exerts 
upon those about him is exactly in keeping with his real 
character. There is an invisible telegraph between soul 
and soul — a mysterious spirit-medium by which the secret 
states of our mind are unconsciously conveyed to another 
to produce there their legitimate influence. Sometimes 
this secret influence is so powerful that we feel it sensibly, 
and yet know not why. How often, when we have met a 
stranger, have we been impressed with feelings, the cause 
of which we could not explain. Sometimes it is a charm, 
sometimes a feeling of repulsion. There can be no doubt 
but it was the spiritual influence of that stranger's charac- 
ter, darted into our spirits along the invisible wires that 
God has laid between the souls of His children. It is by 
this unseen and mysterious process that the mightiest in- 
fluences of characters are exerted about us. Sometimes 
we call this influence sympathy, sometimes love, sometimes 
repulsion, sometimes pleasure, sometimes pain. But when 
we give it these names, it is felt in its strongest power. 
When we name it not, when we feel it not, and know it 
not, it is at work. It is always on its sleepless mission. 
Then how solemn the thought that our characters are all 



64 



POWER OF SILENT INFLUENCE. 



the time operating upon all with whom we associate, 
whether we will or not. 

It is not necessary that we shall be public speakers, or 
writers, or functionaries, in order that our influence shall 
be felt about us. These outward means of influence are 
more direct and apparent, but not more positive and sure. 
Our looks, our words, our actions, even our silence, speak 
of our characters. We are impressing ourselves upon 
others. Our seniors, our equals in age and standing, and 
even the little children about us, are receiving impressions 
of our characters. We are breathing a silent but strong 
influence into many a soul, which goes direct from our 
characters. Are not our responsibilities fearful, so great 
and constant is our influence ? And hence the vast, the 
inexpressibly vast, importance of possessing good charac- 
ters. Our characters are not for ourselves only, but for 
others. If they make us happy, they produce a similar 
happiness in the minds of all with whom we associate, 
differing only in degree. Think of our friends, relatives, 
and neighbors about us, the dear little children, the circles 
in social and business life we enter daily, weekly, yearly ; 
think how many we meet with, speak with, and thus influ- 
ence, from year to year, all through our lives, and then 
calculate the amount of influence we exert upon the world. 
And then think that through all whom we have thus 
affected, our influence, in a smaller degree, is carried to all 
whom they do or may influence, and thus outward and on- 
ward, till it may be that generation from generation, even 
through eternal ages, shall feel the wave of influence which 



WAY TO DO GOOD TO THE WOELD. 65 

we have set in motion, and then endeavor to realize the 
responsibility that rests upon us. If our character is bad, 
oh, what a weight of wickedness and misery we shall 
cause ; but if good, how pleasing the thought that we are 
thus instrumental in sending tide after tide of joy and 
peace out on the wings of our virtuous influence, to purify 
and gladden human hearts in countless thousands, and for 
as many ages. No thought to me is more rife with a sol- 
emn grandeur of interest, than that which relates to the 
influence I am silently exerting upon my fellow-creatures. 
And none so burdens my soul with the conviction of my 
moral responsibilities as this. Would that my readers 
could properly appreciate it. The object of this lecture is 
to duly impress the importance of a strongly and posi- 
tively good character. Not only does our self-love dictate 
this importance, but every feeling of philanthropy and hu- 
manity in our hearts, and every aspiration which we pos- 
sess, and every hope that glows within us, for the progress 
and happiness of our race, presses home with solemn ear- 
nestness its fearful and glorious greatness. 

Would we do good to the world ? Then let our char- 
acters be formed after the most perfect pattern within our 
attainment ; for character is the most powerful instru- 
mentality within our possession. It is not so showy or 
noisy as wealth, or station, or fame, but it is more grand 
and vigorous in the silent tread of its march among human 
hearts. Power chiefly rests in the things that are least 
bustling and noisy. The world looks upon the lightning 
as it leaps from the cloud upon the tree, or racks and splin- 



63 MOLDING IMMORTAL MINDS. 

ters it in atoms, as a strong expression of power ; but not 
a tithe so powerful is it as that electrical vigor, which in 
silence spreads the earth all over with flowers, and fruits, 
and herbage, and holds in its still grasp the worlds that play 
their game of grandeur in the blue sea above us. Should 
a vagrant comet in mad fury burst against our earth, and 
jostle our planet a few feet from its century-beaten track, 
we should startle in gaping awe at this tremendous mani- 
festation of power ; but what would that be, compared 
with the silent but sleepless potency of the calm old sun 
who holds his retinue of worlds in serene and solemn sub- 
mission, and clothes them all in annual verdure and anima- 
tion 1 

We read that not in the earthquake that shook the 
mountain pillars, and waved their old bald heads among 
the clouds, nor yet in the whirlwind that rent the forests 
as gossamer, and played with the cedars of Lebanon as 
feathers, was God found ; but in the " still small voice" 
which, like the whisper of love, breathes into the heart, 
what the loud word can not. So it is, the things most 
silent and unseen are the most powerful. Our characters 
are these silent sources or means of power, unseen by the 
visible and ambitious eye of the world, which God has per- 
mitted us to form and wield for the redemption of man- 
kind. Let others shake the earth with an army's tread, sit 
on thrones, harangue in senates, or bellow from the dem- 
agogue's stump, be it mine to mold a character that God 
shall honor and keep unsullied in its beauty and strength, 
to bear about me whenever I walk among my fellows ; and 



EVERY OXE CAN BE A BENKFACTOE. 67 

when eternity's light reveals the good that mortals have 
done, I shall have no fear that my place will not be high 
among the benefactors of my race. 

In no other way can a man be so sure of doing good as 
in the formation and possession of a good character. If he 
gives money to a beggar, he may err in bestowing alms 
upon an unworthy object, who will prostitute his charity to 
vice. If he build a church, it may become the seat of 
pampered pride. If he found a college, it may in many- 
ways fail in the good intended. So of every thing but 
character. An unblemished character is an evangel of a 
charity which nought can prevent, the ministration of a 
good which everywhere blesses. Not a shadow of a doubt 
need ever cross its possessor's mind about the good he is 
doing. 

Such a character breathes goodness, virtue, holiness 
everywhere. Every one who possesses such a treas- 
ure is a benefactor of mankind. He adds to the goodness 
and happiness of the world. He increases its moral 
strength and virtue, He proves the superiority of right 
over wrong, of virtue over vice ; and he is sowing the seeds 
all about him of a harvest of good, both in this world and 
in the spirit realm. 

In the formation of a good character, every body can 
bless the world while they are blessing themselves, can 
give a glorious charity while they keep it, can impart 
wisdom while they obtain it, can make others rich while 
they are enriching themselves. While it is the best and 
only sure way in the world to do good unto others, it is 



68 ALL INTENDED TO BE HAPPY. 

the easiest. It requires no money, no loss of time, or 
sleep, or strength, but will rather add to all of these. It 
is so easy, that it is within every body's reach. There,, 
perhaps, is not a youth in the country that may not thus 
become a public benefactor. In blessing himself with a 
good character, he blesses the world with a good influence 
and example, besides the good he does in outward acts of 
goodness. 

It is a mistaken idea, that some people must have bad 
characters, that they must be demons, wretches, as by an 
irrevocable decree of fate. The truth is, no such decree rests 
upon any mortal. The decree is the very reverse of this. 
They were made to be clothed with beauty, to be adorned 
with fair characters. This is the object of their being. Not 
for blackness of darkness, not for vice and ruin, did the 
Supreme Goodness light the spark of their being. Their 
duty and privilege is the same as yours and mine. They 
have souls that should and may be clothed in respectable 
characters. And they have power to do it, could they but 
have favorable opportunities. It is easier to form a good 
character than a bad one. It is always pleasant to do right. 
It is always blessed and peaceful to be filled with pure mo- 
tives. 

The young heart, if left to itself, always desires to 
be true and generous. The natural impulse is for the 
good. To do evil, requires planning, contriving, and means 
for evading, all of which is unnatural to the heart unprac- 
ticed in evil. The child's natural inclination is to tell the 
truth at all times, and be dutiful and kind. He has to have 



A VICIOUS COURSE ONE OF DIFFICULTY. 69 

many a lesson in evil from parents and associates before 
he becomes expert. Says a poet, 

" What a tangled web we weave, 
When first we practice to deceive 

So in youth, after many lessons in evil have been taken, 
it is easier to do right than wrong, to form a good than a 
bad character. It is easier to tell the truth than a lie, to 
do a good than a bad act, and a thousand times more pleas- 
ant. Believe this, O youth ! Good characters are easily 
formed, and are formed in gladness and joy ; and soon 
formed ; for the heart readily conforms to good impres- 
sions, and becomes molded by them. But bad characters 
are formed against positive convictions of right, in struggle 
and trial, in doubt and anxiety, in disquietude and forebod- 
ing fear. Bad characters are formed in a furnace of con- 
stant fire. Good ones are formed on the hills of joy. 

The inducements for the formation of a good character 
are almost innumerable. Among these the respect of the 
world should not be forgotten. All people love to be re- 
spected. To obtain respect, one must possess a good 
character. The world respects goodness, and does it honor. 
No matter where it is found, in the palace or hovel, it will 
be respected. Every man has an inward reverence for 
goodness. He meets it with a feeling of awe. He pays 
a willing tribute to virtue. Nothing on earth is more be- 
loved, esteemed, and honored in the world's great heart 
than a noble youth, one whose character is pure, whose 
aims are high, whose life is a moral essay. Men delight 



70 VICE RESPECTS VIRTUE, 

to do him good, to aid him, to give him place, preferment, 
office, or any thing that he may desire at their hands. Bad 
men will respect him. Villains will " lie low 55 in his pres- 
ence, and assume the outward garb of good men. x^nd 
they, too, will vie with each other in doing him good. It 
is glorious to have the unlimited confidence and respect of 
all who know us, and to feel that such confidence is not 
misplaced. It is a thought that an angel may cherish in 
purity. To be conscious of being beloved for our real 
worth, respected and honored for the excellency of our 
characters, is a happiness rich and hallowing in its influ- 
ence. 

But let the youth fix it in his mind as a fact unalterably 
and everlastingly true, that this respect can not be gained 
without a good character. He can not deceive the world 
with respect to his true character. It w^ill out. And if he 
has deceived for awhile, he will be all the more despised 
when he is found out. A character stainless as truth, 
sweet as goodness, upright as the soul of honesty, is the 
only thing with which to secure and hold the world's re- 
spect. 

Then, again, he wants his own respect The sweetest 
thing in earth is self-respect. To know that one is good, is 
pure, is honest, is clean in the sight of God and all good 
men and angels, is a solid comfort that lays on the soul's 
bottom secure and glorious as the pillars* of heaven. And 
though all men forsake, and slander, and abuse, it is a 
strength, a fortress, a rock of joy immovably sure and 
peaceful. Not for the world's gold, and wealth, and 



71 

honors, and kingdoms would a true man sell his self-re- 
spect. For while he has this, he can not be altogether 
miserable, but will be happy. With a genuine, well- 
grounded self-respect, a man walks the earth in the dignity 
of a God. A dastard and a coward is he who has not self- 
respect. 

Again, let the youth fix it as a fact that he must make 
his oion character. It is a work which God has wisely con- 
signed to him alone. No other can do it for him. Not 
man, or angel, or God, can form a character for his soul. 
These may assist him, but the work he must do himself. 
Character is the unseen spirit-garment that one's thoughts 
and feelings weave about his soul with the invisible fingers 
of the Divine law of reward and retribution. 

It is a mysterious and glorious work, thus, with the 
thoughts that glow with light, and the feelings that burn 
with love, to weave about our souls those robes of imper- 
ishable beauty glittering with the party-colored light of 
every virtue which are a defense against all that can harm 
us, which draw around us in admiration and joy multitudes 
of earth's best spirits, and which, in heaven, we shall wear, 
unshamed by their comparison with the habiliments that 
mantle the angel forms. And glorious is the thought that 
these robes are of our own forming. They are ours. And 
the joy and the glory of their wearing is ours. Not with 
wealth were they bought ; and not as an inherited heir- 
loom did they descend upon us, nor as the patrimony of 
parental industry ; not with other hands were they formed, 
nor with others' exertions were they obtained. No ; for 



72 CHARACTER ETERNAL. 

they are ours. We formed them by industrious exertion 
in behalf of the good, the beautiful, and the true ; formed 
them in the efforts of wisdom, virtue, and love, in trial, 
tears, and prayer, in struggle, discipline, and hope, in con- 
stancy, energy, and devotion ; and formed them for the 
glory of our own souls, and the good of all with whom we 
are linked in love and duty. We formed them for earth, 
and formed them for the skies. We shall wear them 
through time, and wear them in eternity ; but, God be 
thanked, we may brighten and strengthen them below, and 
adorn and enrich them more and more, even forever in 
heaven. 



LECTURE V. 

CHOICE OF AVOCATION, AND PEESE VEE AN CE. 

Man must Live for both Body and Mind — Temporal and Spiritual Interests not 
at War — Every One should have a useful Pursuit — Special Training for the 
Avocation — Pursuit adapted to Capacity and Taste — No Sealed Business pro- 
motes Tice — What Perseverance has done — The Great in Mind are Laborious 
— Industry a Passport to Greatness — Friends and Success attend the Diligent — 
Mental and Physical Labor give Power — Nature a Scene of Labor — If you 
would be seen, Shine— Eeal Good on the Mountain-top — Idle Genius Unsuc- 
cessful—Brain, and Hand, and Nerve must Work— Life in Earnest 

In the last lecture the subject of having a fixed and 
determinate object in life for which to live was presented. 
The first and all-important object considered was the for- 
matioii of a good character. At this time we would speak 
more particularly of worldly objects — objects merely tem- 
poral. Characters are formed not more in the closet of 
meditation and prayer, than in the busy marts of business 
and the fields and shops of industry. We are not alto- 
gether spirit yet, not disembodied, and hence must not 
forget the wants of our temporalty. Our nature in this 
life is compounded of spirit and matter; hence our object 
in life must be two-fold. We must have a spiritual and a 
temporal object; we must live for body and mind; and 
these objects must be harmonious, and act to the same 
end. He who prays always and labors none, prays to lit- 
tle purpose ; he who labors always and prays none, labors 

4 



74 TEMPORAL AND SPIRITUAL INTERESTS NOT AT WAR. 

to little purpose. A spiritual purpose properly pursued 
aids a temporal one ; and a temporal purpose wisely labor- 
ed for assists a spiritual one. Our temporal and spiritual 
objects are not at war, but in perfect and glorious harmony. 
For the formation of a strong and noble character, the ex- 
perience of the stirring world is absolutely necessary ; and 
for the highest and happiest success in business, such a 
character is necessary. We have bodies, and we must 
support them. It is wicked to neglect or abuse them. 
We are in the world, and we must live. It is practical 
irreverence to despise the good things of this world. To 
live, we must labor; must have something to do, some 
definite and fixed object in view, which shall be our means 
of support. Our moral nature requires this. An idle man 
can not be a moral man. A lazy, indolent do-little can 
not be a moral man. There is labor, strong, vigorous, 
nervous labor in being moral, in resisting temptation, and 
in doing good. It requires the highest order of action. 
Howard, Fenelon, Washington, Channing, were not indo- 
lent men. The truth is, Idleness is the devil's workshop, 
and Laziness is his master workman. 

If the formation of a strong moral character is our only 
object, we must have before us some worldly pursuit, some- 
thing in which our physical powers shall engage, some av- 
ocation, trade, profession, or calling that shall enlist our 
energies and fix our interests. The sooner this is fixed 
upon the better. Then wisdom's maxim is, Every youth 
should early determine upon some life-calling, and prepare 
for it and pursue it with vigor. Male and female, rich and 



eveey ose should hate a useful pursuit. , 5 

poor, high and low, one and all, should have some honor- 
able and useful employment, which they shall pursue as a 
regular business. And this should be chosen early in 
youth. The young energies should be directed to it, en- 
listed in it, and harmonized with it. The pliant powers 
of both the head and hand should be summoned to the 
work early ; they will thus by early practice acquire readi- 
ness, activity, and force, which will soon become a kind of 
second nature. Witness the young pianist, trained in child- 
hood to touch the sounding keys. With what ease, grace- 
fulness, and power she presides at her obedient instrument. 
See the young farmer, taught in boyhood to hold the j >] 
and swing the scythe. Xot the most renowned dancer ex- 
hibits more gracefulness of motion than he. His form and 
all his implements obey his will, and bring forth what he 
asks in rich abundance. 

It is the privilege and duty of man to la! at misdi- 

rected, or labor to no definite purpose, is scarcely 
than none. That labor may yield its full blessing, it must 
be directed to a definite and worthy object. Success in 
life depends much upon a fixed determination to a single 
point. Whoever wishes to succeed in the business an 
of life, must give the full strength of his attention and en- 
ergy to his business. That this attention and energy shall 
produce the best results, his business should be early cho- 
sen, and his education shaped to it. 

Every youth should be educated for a particular pin- s 
and in a particular manner, which should 
by his natural capacities and * t he has in life. But 



76 SPECIAL TRAINING FOE THE AVOCATION. 

mark ! Every youth should be educated^ whatever is to be 
his trade or profession. 

There is no honorable calling in life that may not engage 
the interest and attention of a whole mind, and be adorned 
and made attractive by the productions of a cultivated in- 
tellect. 

If a young man is to follow agricultural pursuits, he 
should be educated for it. His education should be 
shaped to it. His mind should be fully trained, and its 
powers developed in the direction of their life pursuit. 
He should be made familiar with all the natural sci- 
ences, such as Chemistry, Geology, Mineralogy, Botany, 
and the natural history, character, and physiology of ani- 
mals; for their breathing forms are all about him, and 
through his life he must have to do with them. His 
food, his drink, his dress, his all are within them and he 
must draw them out. The touchstone of his knowledge 
must be applied to their dead and living forms,, that he, 
his wife and children, may be surrounded with the comforts 
and luxuries of life. With Astronomy, Physiology, men- 
tal and moral Philosophy, and the rudiments at least of a 
thorough mathematical education, he should be made ac- 
quainted, for these he needs every day in the care of his 
family and in his business transactions with the world. 
His course of studies, his mental training, should be direct- 
ed with a wise reference to his avocation. Not only his 
success, but the happiness and usefulness of both himself 
and family, depend upon it. Again, not only his mind, 
but his hand, should be educated for his life's avocation. 



PUKSUIT ADAPTED TO CAPACITY AND TASTE. 77 

His physical powers should be made not only strong and 
vigorous, but should be strictly and practically educated 
for his profession, so that mind and body will act together 
for the accomplishment of his end in life. A quack farmer 
is like a quack at any thing else. And an agricultural 
theorist unsupported by practice, is like a theorist any 
where, a mere puff of wind. 

Similar remarks may be applied to youth who have de- 
signed to nil any of the honorable callings in which men 
fulfill their earthly destinies. 

First of all, a choice of business should be made, and 
made early, with a wise reference to capacity and taste. 
Then the youth should be educated for it, and as much as 
possible in it, and when this is done, it should be pursued 
with an industry, energy, and enthusiasm which will war- 
rant success. 

* A man or woman with no business, nothing to do, is an 
absolute pest to society. They are thieves, stealing that 
which is not theirs; beggars, eating that which they have 
not earned : drones, wasting the fruits of others' industrv ; 
leeches, sucking the blood of others ; evil-doers, setting an 
example of idleness and dishonest living ; hypocrites, shin- 
ing in stolen and false colors; vampires, eating out the 
life of the community. Frown upon them, O youth. 
Learn in your heart to despise their course of life. 

Many of our most interesting youth waste a great por- 
tion of their early life in fruitless endeavors at nothing. 
They have no trade, no profession, no object before them, 
nothing to do ; and yet have a great desire to do some- 



7b NO SETTLED BUSINESS PROMOTES VICE. 

thing, and something worthy of themselves. They try 
this and that, and the other ; offer themselves to do any 
thing and every thing, and yet know how to do nothing. 
Educate themselves they can not, for they know not what 
they should do it for. They waste their time, energies, 
and little earnings in endless changes and wanderings. 
They have not the stimulus of a fixed object to fasten their 
attention and awaken their energies ; not a known prize to 
win. They wish for good things, but have no way to at- 
tain them ; desire to be useful, but little means for being 
so. They lay plans, invent schemes, form theories, build 
castles, but never stop to execute and realize them. Poor 
creatures ! All that ails them is the want of an object — 
a single object. They look at a hundred, and see nothing. 
If they should look steadily at one, they would see it dis- 
tinctly. They grasp at random at a hundred things and 
catch nothing. It is like shooting among a scattered flock 
of pigeons. The chances are doubtful. This will never 
do — no, never. Success, respectability, and happiness are 
found in a permanent business. An early choice of some 
business, devotion to it, and preparation for it, should be 
made by every youth. 

When the two objects, business and character, as the 
great end of life, are fairly before a youth, what then? 
Why, he must attain those objects. Will wishes and 
prayers bring them into his hands? By no means. He 
must work as well as wish, labor as well as pray. His 
hand must be as stout as his heart, his arm as strong as 
his head. Purpose must be followed by action, words by 



WHAT PEKSEVERxlXCE HAS DONE. 79 

blows. And these must be repeated "from morn till 
night, from youth till hoary age.*' "Continual dropping 
wears a stone." So persevering labor gains our objects. 
Perseverance is the virtue wanted, a lion-hearted purpose 
of victory. It is this that builds, constructs, accomplishes 
whatever is great, good, and valuable. 

Perseverance built the pyramids on Egypt's plains, 
erected the gorgeous temple at Jerusalem, reared the seven- 
hilled city, inclosed in adamant the Chinese empire, scaled 
the stormy, cloud-capped Alps, opened a highway through 
the watery wilderness of the Atlantic, leveled the forests of 
a new world, and reared in its stead a community of states 
and nations. It has wrought from the marble block the 
exquisite creations of genius, painted on the canvas the gor- 
geous mimicry of nature, and engraved on metallic surface 
the viewless substance of the shadow. It has put in mo- 
tion millions of spindles, winged as many flying shuttles, 
harnessed a thousand iron steeds to as many freighted cars, 
and set them flying from town to town and nation to na- 
tion, tunneled mountains of granite and annihilated space 
with the lightning's speed. It has whitened the waters of 
the world with the sails of a hundred nations, navigated 
every sea and explored every land. It has reduced nature 
in her thousand forms to as many sciences, taught her laws, 
prophesied her future movements, measured her untrodden 
spaces, counted her myriad hosts of worlds, and computed 
their distances, dimensions, and velocities. 

But greater still are the works of perseverance in the 
world of mind. What are the productions of science and 



80 THE GREAT IN MIND ARE LABORIOUS. 

art compared with the splendid achievements won in the 
human soul ? What is a monument of constructive genius, 
compared with the living domes of thought, the sparkling 
temples of virtue, and the rich, glory- wreathed sanctuaries 
of religion, which perseverance has w r rought out and reared 
in the souls of the good ? What are the toil-sweated pro- 
ductions of wealth piled in vast profusion around a Gerard, 
or a Rothschild, when weighed against the stores of wisdom, 
the treasures of knowledge, and the strength, beauty, and 
glory with which this victorious virtue has enriched and 
adorned a great multitude of minds during the march of a 
hundred generations % How little can we tell, how little 
know, the brain-sweat, the heart-labor, the conscience-strug- 
gles which it cost to make a Newton, a Howard, or a Chan- 
ning ; how many days of toil, how many nights of weari- 
ness, how many months and years of vigilant, powerful ef- 
fort, was spent to perfect in them what the world has 
bowed to in reverence. Their words have a power, their 
names a charm, and their deeds a glory. How came this 
wealth of soul to be theirs ? Why are their names watch- 
words of power set high on the temple of fame ? Why 
does childhood lisp them in reverence, and age feel a thrill 
of pleasure when they are mentioned 1 

They were the sons of Perseverance — of unremitting in- 
dustry and toil. They were once as weak and helpless as 
any of us — once as destitute of wisdom, virtue, and power 
as any infant. Once the very alphabet of that language 
which they have wielded with such magic effect, was un- 
known to them. They toiled long to learn it, to get its 



INDUSTRY A PASSPOBT TO GREATNE 81 

sounds, understand its dependencies, and longer still v 
tain the secret of its highest charm and mightiest power, 
and yet even longer for those living, glorious thoughts 
which they bade it bear to an astonished and admiring 
world. Their characters, which are now given to the world, 
and will be to millions yet unborn, as patterns of great- 
ness and goodness, were made by that untiring perseverance 
which marked their whole lives. From childhood to a^e 
they knew no such word as fail. Defeat only gave them 
power; difficulty only taught them the necessity of re- 
doubled exertions; dangers gave them courage; the sight 
of great labors inspired in them corresponding exertions. 
So it has been with all men and all women who have been 
eminently successful in any profession or calling in life. 
Their success has been wrought out by persevering indus- 
try. Successful men owe more to their perseverance than 
to their natural powers, their friends, or the favorable cir- 
cumstances around them. Genius will falter by the side 
of labor ; great powers wiM yield to great industry. Tal- 
ent is desirable, but perseverance is more so. It will 
make mental powers, or, at least, it will strengthen those 
already made. Yes, it will make mental power. The 
most available and successful kind of mental power is that 
made by the hand of cultivation. 

It will also make friends. "Who will not befriend the 
persevering, energetic youth, the fearless man of indu 
Who is not a friend to him who is a friend to himself? 
He who perseveres in business, and hardships, and discour- 
agements, will always find ready and generous friends in 

4* 



82 FRIENDS AND SUCCESS ATTEND THE DILIGENT. 

every time of need. He who perseveres in a course of 
wisdom, rectitude, and benevolence, is sure to gather 
around him friends who will be true and faithful. Honest 
industry will procure friends in any community and any 
part of the civilized world. Go to the men of business, of 
worth, of influence, and ask them who shall have their con- 
fidence and support. They will tell you, the men who falter 
not by the wayside, who toil on in their callings against 
every barrier, whose eye is bent upward, and whose motto 
is "Excelsior." These are the men to whom they give 
their confidence. But they shun the lazy, the indolent, the 
fearful, and faltering. They would as soon trust the wind 
as such men. If you would win friends, be steady and true 
to yourself; be the unfailing friend of your own purposes, 
stand by your own character, and others will come to your 
aid. Though the earth quake and the heavens gather 
blackness, be true to your course and yourself. Quail not, 
nor doubt of the result ; victory will be yours. Friends 
w^ill come. A thousand arms of strength will be bared to 
sustain you. 

First, be sure that your trade, your profession, your 
calling in life is a good one — one that God and goodness 
sanctions ; then be true as steel to it. Think for it, plan 
for it, work for it, live for it ; throw in your mind, might, 
strength, heart, and soul into your actions for it, and suc- 
cess will crown you her favored child. No matter whether 
your object be great or small, whether it be the planting 
of a nation or a patch of potatoes, the same perse- 
verance is necessary. Every body admires an iron deter- 



MENTAL AM) PHYSICAL LABOR GIVE POWER. 83 

mination. and x>m bo th him who directs it to 

good. 

But perseverance will not only make friends, but it 
make favorable circumstances. It will change the face of 
all things around us. It is silly and cowardly to complain 
of the circumstances that are against us. Clouds of dark- 
ness, evil forebodings, opposition, enemies, barriers of every 
kind, will vanish before a stout heart and resolute energy 
of soul. The Alps stood between Napoleon and Italy, 
which he desired to conquer. He scaled the mountain and 
descended upon his prey. His startling descent more than 
mcjuered the country. He forced every circumstance 
into his favor. His greatest barrier proved a sure means 
of victory. A conquered enemy is often the readiest 
slave. So a barrier once sealed affords a vantage-ground 
for our future efforts. Opposing circumstances often create 
strength, both mental and physical. Labor makes us 
strong. Opposition gives us greater power of resistance. 
To overcome one barrier gives us greater ability to over- 
come the next. It is cowardice to grumble about circum- 
stances. Some men always talk as though fate had woven 
a web of circumstances against them, and it is useless for 
them to try to break through it. Out upon such dastardly 
whining ! It is their business to dash on in pursuit of their 
object against every thing. Then circumstances will grad- 
ually turn in their favor, and they will deem themselves 
the favored children of destiny. 

Look at Nature. She has a voice, which is the voice of 
God, teaching a thousand lessons of perseverance. The 



84 NATURE A SCENE OF LABOR. 

lofty mountains are wearing down by slow degrees. The 
ocean is gradually, but slowly, filling up, by deposits from 
its thousand rivers. The Niagara Falls have worn back 
several miles through the hard limestone, over which it 
pours its thundering columns of water, and will by-and-by 
drain the great lake which feeds its boiling chasm. The 
Eed Sea and whole regions of the Pacific Ocean are gradu- 
ally filling up by the labors of a little insect, so small as 
to be almost invisible to the naked eye. These stupend- 
ous works are going on before our eyes, by a slow but 
sure process. They teach a great lesson of perseverance. 
Nature has but one voice on this subject, that is " perse- 
vere." God has but one voice, that is " persevere," and 
duty proclaims the same lesson. More depends upon an 
active perseverance than upon genius. Says a common- 
sense author upon this subject, " Genius, unexerted, is no 
more genius than a bushel of acorns is a forest of oaks." 
There may be epics in men's brains, just as there are oaks 
in acorns, but the tree and the bark must come out before 
we can measure them. We very naturally recall here 
that large class of grumblers and wishers, who spend their 
time in longing to be higher than they are, while they 
should have been employed to advance themselves. 
These bitterly moralize on the injustice of society. Do 
they want a change 1 Let them then change ! Who pre- 
vents them ? If you are as high as your faculties will per- 
mit you to rise in the scale of society, why should you 
complain of men % 

It is God that arranged the law of precedence. Implead 



IF YOU WOULD BE SEEN, SHLNE. 85 

Him or be silent ! If you have capacity for a higher sta- 
tion, take it. What hinders you 1 How many men 
would love to go to sleep beggars, and wake up Roths- 
childs or Astors ? How many would fain go to bed 
dunces, to be waked up Solomons % You reap what you 
have sown. Those who have sown dunce-seed, vice-seed, 
laziness-seed, usually get a crop. They that sow the 
wind reap a whirlwind. A man of mere " capacity unde- 
veloped" is only an organized degradation with a shine on 
it. A flint and a genius that will not strike fire are no 
better than wet junk-wood. We have Scripture for it, 
that " A living dog is better than a dead lion !" If you 
"would go up, go — if you would be seen, shine. At the 
present day eminent position, in any profession, is the re- 
sult of hard, unwearied labor. Men can no longer fly at 
one dash into eminent position. They have got to ham- 
mer it out by steady and rugged blows. The world is no 
longer clay, but rather iron, in the hands of its workers. 

Work is the order of this day. The slow penny is 
surer than the quick dollar. The slow trotter will out- 
travel the fleet racer. Genius darts, flutters, and tires ; 
but perseverance wears and wins. The all-day horse wins 
the race. The afternoon man wears off the laurels. The 
last blow finishes the nail. 

Men must learn to labor and to wait, if they would suc- 
ceed. Brains grow by use as well as hands. The greatest 
man is the one who uses his brains the most, who has 
added most to his natural stock of power. Would you 
have fleeter feef? Try them in the race. Would you 



86 REAL GOOD ON THE MOUNTAIN-TOP. 

have stronger minds ? Put them at rational thinking. 
They will grow strong by action. Would you have 
greater success ? Use greater and more rational and con 
stant efforts ? Does competition trouble you ? Work 
away ; what is your competitor but a man ? Are you a 
coward, that you shrink from the contest? Then you 
ought to be beaten. Is the end of your labors a long way 
off? Every step takes you nearer to it. Is it a weary 
distance to look at ? Ah, you are faint-hearted ! That is 
the trouble with the multitude of youth. Youth are not 
so lazy as they are cowardly. They may bluster at first, 
but they won't "stick it out." Young farmer, do you 
covet a homestead, nice and comfortable, for yourself and 
that sweet one of your day-dreams?- What hinders that 
you should not have it? Persevering industry, with 
proper economy, will give you the farm. A man can get 
what he wants if he is not faint-hearted. 

Youth, learn this lesson : All real good is on the mount- 
ain-top — you must go up there to get it. The greater the 
good, the higher the mount which it crowns ; and the 
longer and greater the efforts necessary to secure it. 

Would you secure to yourself a high, noble, Christian 
character ? It is found on the mount of self-denial and 
prayer. Go up then hastily, cheerily, and thankfully, 
heeding not the allurements by the way-side, and soon you 
will be arrayed in the gorgeous object of your noble am- 
bition. You have but to do as did Christ every day you 
live, be prayerful and active in goodness. Sow the seeds 
of every virtue in your heart, and warm the soil with the 



IDLE GENIUS UNSUCCESSFUL. 87 

sunlight of wisdom. Do as others have done, work long 
and well. Bridle the tongue ; curb the passions ; check 
the appetites; restrain the propensities ; master the will ; 
subdue the impulses ; conquer the spirit of evil. Be sleep- 
less, watchful, ever active, and you will not, can not fail. 
Fail ! Fail is not in the persevering man's vocabulary. 
Whether it is fame, fortune, competency, professional suc- 
cess, learning, the good of others, a single virtue, or the 
constellated union of all virtues that you seek, there is but 
one way to obtain it : it is by persevering effort. 

Great natural endowments are desirable, but persever- 
ance is better. Perseverance must attend these, or there 
can be no success. The common mind with perseverance 
will outstrip the most godlike genius without it. Genius 
may make a few glorious leaps. Like a blazing meteor it 
may flash half across the horizon at once. But the common 
mind, led on by its faithful guide, perseverance, though it 
may lag behind for a season, will finally march on, gaining 
speed with time, and will leave genius worn out and dis- 
couraged amid its own faded glories. When the boy cut 
his way with his pocket-knife up the almost perpendicular 
abutment of the Natural Bridge, and left his companions 
behind gazing in wonder and astonishment at him as he 
ascended, as if by miracle, toward the top of that dark de- 
file, two hundred feet in depth, he did it not by virtue of 
any superior strength or capacity, but only by dint of per- 
severance. Hole by hole he cut in the rock ; step by step 
he ascended. His eye was bent upward, and upward he 
went, to enroll his name among those of the brave and dar- 



88 BKAIN, AND HAND, AND NERVE MUST WOKK. 

ing boys whose souls were fired w T ith the spirit of perse- 
verance. So it is with every youth. If he persevere, she 
goes up. Each step lifts him higher. Each effort moves 
him onward. Each blow makes a hole for his feet. Con- 
tinual struggle, unremitted effort, is the only hope. Toil 
is the price of success. Learn it, young farmer, mechanic, 
student, minister, physician, Christian. Learn it, ye form- 
ers of character, ye followers of Christ, ye would-be men 
and women. Ye must have something to do, and do it 
with all your might. Ye must harden your hands and 
sweat your brains. Ye must work your nerves and strain 
your sinews. Ye must be at it, and always at it. No 
trembling, doubting, hesitating, flying the track. Like the 
boy on the rock, ye can not go back. Onward ye must 
go. There is a great work for ye all to do, a deep and 
earnest life-work, solemn, real, and useful. Life is no idle 
game, no force to amuse and be forgotten. It is a fixed 
and stern reality, fuller of duties than the sky is of 
stars. 

Every moment has a three-fold duty — one to yourself, - 
your fellow, and your God. Life's great end ye should 
labor to reach. Youth is the time to begin the struggle. 
A great American poet has breathed into a stirring poem 
the spirit with which all youth should be fired. Let us 
read it and close. 

Tell me not in mournful numbers, 

Life is but an empty dream ! 
For the soul is dead that slumbers, 

And things are not what they seem. 



LIFE IN EARNEST. 89 

Life is real ! Life is earnest ! 

And the grave is not its goal ; 
Dust thou art ; to dust returnest, 

Was not spoken of the soul. 

Not enjoyment and not sorrow 

Is our destined end or way ; 
But to act that each to-morrow 

Find us farther than to day. 

Art is long, and time* is fleeting, 

And our hearts, though stout and brave, 

Still like muffled drums are beating 
Funeral marches to the grave. 

In the world's broad field of battle, 

In the bivouac of life, 
Be not like dumb, driven cattle, 

Be a hero in the strife. 

Trust no fortune, however pleasant ! 

Let the dead Past bury its dead ! 
Act, act in the living Present, 

Heart within and God o'erhead ! 

Lives of great men all remind us 

We can make our lives sublime, 
And departing leave behind us 

Footprints on the sands of time. 

Footprints that perhaps another 

Sailing o'er life's solemn main, 
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, 

Seeing, shall take heart again. 

Let us then be up and doing, 

With a heart for any fate ; 
Still achieving, still pursuing, 

Learn to labor and to wait. — Longfellow. 



LECTURE YI. 

HEALTH. 

Health the Foundation of all Successful Action — Bright Stars oftenest Eclipsed — 
Health a Binding Duty — Omniscience of the Eye— Omnipotence of the Hand 
— Disease makes Man a Blank — Natural Death Bare — Disease a Penalty, not a 
Curse — Health a Duty to Friends and to God — We Daily Sin against Ourselves 
— Prevention the Best Doctor — All Else rather than Health Studied — Disease 
Disgraceful — Ignorance the Mother of Disease — Youth the Hope of the World 
— How to Preserve Health. 

In previous lectures, I have spoken of the objects of life 
and of perseverance, as requisite, or necessary, to their 
attainment. But it is yevy clear that there are many 
other things which must accompany perseverance, or no- 
thing will be effected. In this lecture it is my purpose 
to speak of one of these prerequisites to perseverance, 
and consequently, to success in life ; that prerequisite is 
Health. 

Nothing is clearer than that the most towering genius, 
the most determined ambition, the most untiring perse- 
verance, must be all unavailing in the struggle for life's 
great objects without health. Genius may plume her wings 
for a lofty flight, may revel among her own brilliant crea- 
tions, may bathe her plumage in the glittering light of 
the stars ; if young health stand not by her side, to give 
strength to her pinions, energy and permanency to her 



BRIGHT STAR? OFTENEST ECLIPSED. 91 

young and daring powers, she will be compelled to come 
. even to the earth, and. like a young eagle struck on 
his first upward flight by the huntsman's ball, flutter in the 
dust, a crippled, broken, miserable thing of life in the arms 
of death*. 

What more truly heart-rending sight, than to witness 
a youth, with noble aspirations and lofty powers, with 
thoughts all great and pure, and feelings that breathe of 
angel strength and beauty, whose whole soul is given up 
to God and goodness, and in every chamber of which 
beams the light of truth and heaven, cut slowly down by 
the ruthless hand of disease, in the very hour when the 
promise is fairest, and the hope and the love of friends are 
brightest and strongest. If there is any thing that should 
cause the earth to weep, and the cold world to clothe its 
heart in weeds of mourning, it is the loss of such spirits. 
They are the suns and stars that shine in this world's firma- 
ment; they are the gold, diamonds, and flowers that en- 
rich and beautify its homes, its altars, its seats of justice, 
its asylums of charity, and its halls of learning. They save 
it from ruin, and redeem it from the grasp of moral death. 
And yet it is ours to v (ten the departure of such 

angel spirits. They go from us. and a region of darkness 
is left around us. as when a sun goes out in the heavens, 
or a star falls, to leave its place forever dark. Disease will 
cripple the mightiest energies, enervate the strongest intel- 
lect, unnerve the most stalwart arm. and blight the fairest 
ects. Truly can we say that health is the first pre- 
requisite to success in the true objects of life. It is the 



02 HEALTH A BINDING DUTY. 

one thing without which nothing can be effected. It is the 
absolute essential to the performance of man's proper 
duties ; that without which he can perform no duty prop- 
erly; that without which he can neither be useful to 
himself, his fellow, or his God ; can neither be intellectual, 
moral, o*r religious. Yes ; health is the great boon which 
all should crave, the right arm of every power, both of 
body and soul, the buckler of the head, and the shield of 
the heart. 

Permit me to read you the opinion of a great divine 
upon this subject. He says : " This may be thought by 
some a singular topic to introduce in a course of lectures 
from the pulpit, and upon the Sabbath ; but I regard the 
preservation of health as an important and binding duty. 
God has made us denizens of this earth. He has clothed 
our better and immortal nature in a material vesture, and 
linked us by physical bonds to the animal creation. And 
wonderful is the mechanism by which He has adapted us 
to this sphere, intimately is the soul connected with it ! 
Wonderful are the existences which He has created upon 
the relations of action and reaction of cause and effect. 
Has He filled this vast nature, this universe of ocean, 
earth, and air, with music, making it, as it were, one great 
organ, with its stops and valves of varied melody, and all 
its living and harmonious voices ? So has He tuned the 
ear to hear it all, molding it in perfect shape, and giving it 
chords to vibrate with delight. Untune these chords, clog 
these delicate avenues of sound, and are you not going 
counter to the manifest design of God ? Are you not 



OMNISCIENCE OF THE EYE. 93 

breaking an express law, and therefore sinning ? See 
how true it is, that God has made the world not only 
useful, but beautiful. He has not only made the sky, but 
He has given it the softest color of the prism. He has 
not only hung the stars there, but He has made them to 
sparkle gloriously all athwart that high blue dome. He not 
only condenses the vapors into clouds, but they brighten 
in gorgeous hues around the sun, or darken in grandeur 
beneath the storm. He has not only given the springs 
1 to run among the hills, 5 but He sprinkles their water- 
drops on high and abroad, until they throw an arc across 
the abyss, and glitter in the indescribable beauty of the 
rainbow. And the earth is clothed with greenness and 
flowers, and the mountains lift their battlements, and 
ocean spreads out its majesty. Look abroad, and see how 
beauty blends with usefulness in the multitude of created 
things. And what is there in man adapted to all this 1 
That tender and delicate organ the eye — paralyze its deli- 
cate nerves, quench its light, seal up its lids, and all this 
enchantment, this field of glorious vision, disappears, is 
it not a duty, then, to nourish and preserve this portion of 
the human frame ? Look at the hand — a little organ, 
but how curiously wrought ! How manifold and neces- 
sary are its functions ! What an agent has it been for the 
wants and designs of man ! The hand — what would the 
mind be without it? How has it molded and made pal- 
pable the conceptions of that mind, removed its obstacles, 
and gone before it to pioneer its progress L The hand — it 
wrought the statue of Meninon, and hung the brazen gates 



94 OMNIPOTENCE OF THE HAND. 

of Thebes ; it fixed the mariner's trembling needle upon 
its axis, and first heaved back the tremendous bar of the 
printing-press. It opened the tubes for Galileo, until world 
after world swept largely before his vision : and it reefed 
the high top-sail that rustled over Columbus in the morn- 
ing breezes of Bahamas. And it has held the sword with 
which freedom has fought her battles ; it has poised the 
axe of the dauntless woodman, as he opened the paths of 
civilization ; it turned the mystic leaves upon which Mil- 
ton and Shakspeare inscribed their burning thoughts ; and 
it secured, finally, the pen that signed the Declaration of In- 
dependence. Would you weaken the hand, then ? Would 
you make it nerveless or useless ? If so, would you not 
break a great physical law of the Creator's own ordaining % 
You perceive the importance of preserving the health of 
the body in all its organs and functions. For if these im- 
portant portions are to be cherished, so are the minor 
powers. They are necessary to carrying out the designs 
of our existence ; they are necessary to doing good ; they 
are necessary to effect the ideas of mind ; as is their con- 
dition, so, often, is this higher and nobler principle." 

Then am I not justified in making health the subject of 
a lecture, and in urging its claims most earnestly upon the 
young % Most surely no subject is more worthy of our 
serious consideration, considered morally or religiously. 
It is just as much a duty to preserve health, as to love our 
neighbor, or worship God ; and just as surely a sin to 
violate the laws of health, as to lie, cheat, steal, murder, 
or blaspheme the name of the Most High. God has laid 



DISEASE MAKES MAX A 95 

upon us great and important duties ; duties which it is im- 
possible for us to perform without health and its conse- 
quent strength of body and mind. 

The performance of these duties depend upon the pos- 
session of health. Now, if we destroy our health, or vio- 
late the laws by which we hold it, we destroy our ability 
to perform our God-given duties. And it amounts to just 
the same as though we had retained the health, and 
refused to perform our duties. If a father should give his 
child a glass, and ask him to bring him a glass of water, 
and the child should break the glass through a reckless 
stupidity and carelessness, and then came and very inno- 
cently plead that he could not bring the water, because the 
glass had fallen to pieces, he would be slow to receive the 
boy's excuse as a valid one. The father would justly hold 
him accountable for breaking the glass and the non-per- 
formance of his duty. 

Our Father has laid important duties upon us, and given 
us health by which we are enabled to perform these duties. 
Now, if we injure our health, or violate the laws by which 
we hold it, so as to render it impossible for us to perform 
what is required of us, He will hold us accountable both 
for the injury to our health and the non-performance of 
our duties. It is just about impossible for any man to per- 
form the duties of life with pain in every joint, and misery 
in every portion of his body. So intimate is the connection 
ween the body and the mind, that the mind can neither 

ink right nor feel right, when the b< kly, ner\ 

diseased, and in pain. Its judgment must be impaired, its 



96 NATURAL DEATH RARE. 

sense of right blunted, its perceptions modified and de- 
ranged by the disease. Neither can it feel patient, kind, 
forbearing, forgiving, and charitable, as when in health. 
Its affections will be weakened, its benevolence enervated, 
and its religious aspirations all distracted and broken. It 
can neither love man, nor worship God, nor cultivate its 
own powers with its full force, without the aid of health. 
I remarked that it is just as surely a sin to destroy health 
as to murder. And I might have said that the violation 
of the laws of health is murder. Disease is the procuring 
cause of death in almost every instance. There is prob- 
ably not one in a hundred of our race that dies a natural 
death. Nearly all are murdered, not suddenly, but by 
slow degrees, by continual, life-long violations of physical 
and organic laws, by violations more numerous than the 
hairs on our heads. There is no doubt that the proper age 
of man is cut short more than one half, and that half that 
is lived, is not more than half lived ; so that we live out 
not more than one quarter of the life we ought to live, and 
this three quarters is cut off by violations of laws with 
which we may be perfectly familiar, and with which we 
may comply. Go into your graveyards, and read the ages 
of the young whose bodies lie buried there, and behold the 
graves but a few spans long, then ask yourselves if vio- 
lated health is not murder. I would that people every- 
where could be made to view this subject in its proper 
light — I mean in a moral light ; could feel as morally bound 
to preserve their health, as to be honest or religious; could 
feel that it is an absolute and positive sin to violate a sin- 



97 

gle physical or organic law of their being. The truth is, 
many people look upon sickness as a sort of scourge or 
visitation sent by God, which can not be avoided, and 
which must be submitted to with as good a grace as pos- 
sible. Now, if sickness is a scourge from God, sin is just 
as much so. If we can avoid one, we can the other. One 
is a violation of the moral law ; the other is occasioned by 
a violation of both a physical and moral law. It is true 
sickness is a scourge sent from God ; but it is for our 
transgressions of His physical laws. If we will live in 
obedience to His laws, He will not send the scourge. We 
ought to look upon sickness and sin in the same light, and 
with the same feelings. They should both be regarded as 
within our control, and subject to the dictations of our 
wills. It is true, there are accidents which we can not con- 
trol, and causes of disease beyond our immediate reach. 
Cut these are the exceptions^ and not the general rule. 
People may be healthy and well, if they will ; if they will 
try as hard as they do to get what they call the good 
things of this world, which not unfrequently are the bad 
things. 

There is one other consideration of a moral nature which 
I wish to notice before leaving this part of the subject. 
In viewing the moral obligations to preserve health, we 
should not lose sight of the fact that these bodies, not only 
fearfully and wonderfully, but beautifully made, are the 
gifts of our Father. He made them, He gave them, He 
contrived them, He decorated them, and added a glow of 
pleasure and a thrill of joy to the healthy action of each 

5 



98 HEALTH A DUTY TO FRIENDS AND TO GOD. 

and every portion. The health which they naturally pos- 
sess, is His gift ; and if we respect Him properly, if our 
hearts duly appreciate His favors, and rise in grateful 
thanksgivings to Him, we shall surely strive to preserve 
our bodies in their original beauty and strength, and pre- 
sent these continually before Him in an associated glow of 
health, activity, and power. When we neglect, or abuse 
these homes which He has provided for our spirit's earthly 
dwelling-places, we fail in gratitude to Him, and are guilty 
of sin in His sight, of practical irreverence to Him. 

Once more. If we feel properly those thrilling emotions 
of friendship and love which should glow in every true 
heart toward its friends, these ought to prompt to obedi- 
ence to the laws of health. For how unhappy will our 
sickness make our friends ! How keen is their sorrow 
when they see us languishing on beds of disease, when 
they see our bodies writhing in pain, and our whole beings 
racked with torture and agony. When the truly good 
suffer and die from bodily disease, their friends are the 
most intense sufferers ; for theirs is the agony of broken 
hearts, of bleeding sympathies. This thought ought to 
awaken us to the most vigilant and untiring efforts to pre- 
serve and perfect that health that belongs to us, that gift 
of our Father's love. All the duties we owe to ourselves, 
our friends, and country, our race, and our God, depend 
upon health for their performance, as well as our own hap- 
piness. Every consideration of a moral nature assures us 
that we are morally bound to preserve health, as much as 
to obey any of the mandates of the moral law. But how 



WE DAILY SIN AGADsST OURSELVES. 99 

poorly the people of this world heed this moral obliga- 
tion. Look around you for that rare thing, that anomaly 
in the earth, a healthy person, one whose blood bounds 
through his veins bearing the vermillion of health, one 
whose lip is parched never with a fever's flaw, whose breath 
is sweet as the fragrance of a new-blown rose, whose step 
is as elastic as that of the forest roe, whose frame is erect 
and full, whose sleep is sweet, and whose days and nights 
are free from pain. Ah, where will you find such an one % 
And yet this is a picture of what we all should be, re- 
garded in a physical light. 

Very few are to be found who have no disease about 
them, no diseased members, no weak spots, no open doors 
asking disease to walk in. And well may it be so. The 
wonder is not that people are so sickly, but that they are 
so well. If their frames were not made stronger than iron 
and tougher than any known substance, they would not, 
could not, live any length of time ; for nearly all of us 
live in almost continual transgression of the laws of vital 
economy. We eat unwholesome food, improper quanti- 
ties, and at improper times ; we drink unwholesome 
drinks, and are intemperate in these ; we breathe impure 
air, often air impregnated with the very seeds of death ; 
we sleep frequently in small and almost always in confined 
rooms, as though we regarded the pure air of heaven as 
dangerous ; we often sleep when we should be awake, and 
are awake when we should be asleep ; we often clothe our- 
selves in attire illy adapted to the free development and 
action of the muscular powers ; we often take too violent 



100 PREVENTION THE BEST DOCTOR. 

and severe exercise, and often not enough ; we expose our- 
selves to a thousand dangers, and confine ourselves when 
the hill-air should fan our brows and invigorate our spirits ; 
we have a thousand evil and intemperate habits, a hun- 
dredth part of which I have not time nor inclination now 
to mention. And this is the way we do from infancy on- 
ward ; continually transgressing, and continually suffering, 
and about as continually doctoring. The drugs that many 
people take are enough to undermine the stoutest consti- 
tutions. * The course pursued by about half of the world, 
might be well described by this " see-saw," get sick and 
take drugs, get sick and take drugs. 

Drugs are proper enough in their place, but their place 
is not often in the human stomach, and even though they 
may be necessary to cure a disease, it is not as necessary 
that that disease should exist. We should study preven- 
tion more than cure. Let physicians study cures. The 
" Materia Medica" is in their hands, and let them keep it. 
The less we have to do with it, the better, if we are wise, 
so as not to need its remedies. But let us study preven- 
tion, study the laws of health, the laws of our being, and 
learn to obey them as a moral duty of the first import- 
ance. 

But here again how remiss are we. How little do we 
know of ourselves, of the buildings in which we dwell, of 
the laws by which they exist, and the means necessary to 
keep them in repair. And how little do we care about 
this knowledge which we so much need. How few there 
are, especially among the young, who know comparatively 



ALL ELSE BATHES THAN HEALTH STUDIED. 101 

any thing about their own systems, or about the laws 
which govern their health. This is the last kind of knowl- 
edge which people seek. Go into our people's houses, and 
examine their libraries, and you will find books on history, 
books on law, books on physiology, books on theology 
and religion, books on agriculture and mechanism, books 
on law, and war, and murder, tales, and poems, and lec- 
tures, and every thing but books on the human system, 
treating of the laws which govern health. You will find 
long treatises on diseases and the medicines necessary to 
cure them, on calomel and jalap, lobelia and pepper, on 
allopathy, homeopathy, and hydropathy, as applied to 
working wonders in curing all incurable diseases, and rais- 
ing men almost from the dead ; but no treatises showing 
the application of these various systems to the preservation 
of health. The last book in nearly all libraries is a book 
on physiology, applying its instructions to the preservation 
of health. And into most family libraries it is yet to be 
introduced. Eead our papers, periodicals, journals, regis- 
ters, and you will find all subjects treated but the one under 
consideration. Go into our schools and colleges, and you 
will be surprised to find only here and there a youth mak- 
ing any effort to make himself acquainted with himself or 
the laws which govern his health. Every thing else, all 
other sciences, are studied ; languages on which the mold 
of ages has gathered, are poured over for years, and 
sciences as dry and impracticable as can well be imagh. . 
are made the subjects of long and intense interest, while 
the most important study of practical physiology is en- 



102 DISEASE DISGRACEFUL. 

tirely neglected. People act as though they thought 
every thing else more necessary than health ; and at times 
they seem to act as though they thought it a virtue to be 
sick. Why are all people so unacquainted with them- 
selves ; so ignorant of the laws and -actions of their own 
systems ? It seems to me almost unaccountable. What 
study .is more delightful, more intensely interesting, than 
human physiology. Nothing can be more so. Upon our 
knowledge of this depends our ability to preserve health, 
and to perfect the various powers of the system. 

But something more than simple knowledge is necessary. 
We must feel a determination to abide by the dictates of 
that knowledge, to be controlled by its voice. We must 
make a practical use of what we learn and what we know, 
reduce it to practice in every-day life. We should look 
upon it as a religious duty, not less sacred and imperious 
than any other we have to perform. We are ashamed of 
our sins, and try to hide them from the world. When we 
deceive, lie, cheat, or steal, we seek to conceal our wicked- 
ness from the eye of our fellows. We are ashamed of it. 
We ought to be just as much ashamed of our diseases, of 
our corruptions of body : for they are both transgressions 
of the laws of God, which we are under the highest moral 
obligations to obey. Our consciences should rebuke us 
just as severely for being sick, as for being wicked; for 
both unfit us alike for the performance of our duties to 
God and man. If we would be truly virtuous, upright, 
and moral, if we would fulfill the whole laws of God, if 
we would reap the fullest enjoyments of life, if we would 



IGNORANCE THE MOTHER OF DISEASE. 103 

live in the nearest proximity to perfection, if we would 
stand in a moral point of view before God blameless, we 
should seek for both physical and moral health. It should 
be our most continual study to be pure, bodily and spirit- 
ually. 

It is not my purpose in this lecture to attempt to point 
out the course of life necessary to health, so much as to 
present the moral obligations we are under to preserve the 
health of our physical beings. To me it is a religious 
duty, scarcely inferior to any other. And although for it 
I may receive the jeers and taunts of my fellows, it is still 
a duty which, under God, I must strive to perform, and 
seek to induce others to do the same. And if I could by 
any means induce my young friends to give this subject the 
study, the reflection, the investigation that its importance 
demands, I should feel that I had done a service which 
will add much to their happiness and usefulness in life. 
The first thing that young people want upon this subject 
is enlightenment, knowledge, physiological knowledge, a 
knowledge of themselves, a knowledge of what is neces- 
sary to their physical well-being. And secondly, a deter- 
mination to abide by the teachings of that knowledge. 

To the young I address myself upon this subject with far 
more confidence than to those who have passed the merid- 
ian of life. The older people are so thoroughly fixed, so 
deeply rooted, and so interwoven with strong and bitter 
indices, and such a blind devotion to custom, or the old 
way, that they may about as well be given over to hard- 
ness of heart and blindness of mind, as to attempt to re- 



104 YOUTH THE HOPE OF THE WORLD. 

form them. But the habits of the young are less firmly 
fixed. Their minds are more open to conviction. They 
have longer lives before them, and higher aspirations within 
them. They have more to live for and more to do ; and 
more to induce them to strive for the straight and narrow 
path of life. Upon the youth we must rely chiefly for all 
w r e hope for the world and humanity. And hence to them 
I present this subject, with some degree of confidence that 
they will be benefited by it. I should be glad to see 
every youth more familiar with his own system than the 
geography of his father's farm or homestead ; to see all 
know as much about themselves as any school book ; and 
be familiar with the actions of every part of their systems, 
and the influences of air, exercise, diet, sleep, exposure, 
intemperance, etc., etc. If they were thus acquainted with 
themselves, they might avoid many of the rocks and quick- 
sands upon which others have stranded. And the very 
fact of striving to conform to the laws of health, would 
teach them a lesson of obedience which they would strive 
to carry out in all the walks of life. People's knowledge 
must always be far in advance of their obedience. They 
know better than they do. Even now nearly all people 
know how to take much better care of their health than 
they do. They transgress many known laws, disobey a 
thousand known injunctions. So it will always be in this 
world. Knowledge must be far in advance of obedience. 
But as knowledge increases, obedience will increase. Give 
new instruction, and, to a certain extent, they will follow 
it. Then let knowledge increase. Let wisdom abound. 



HOW TO PRESERVE HEALTH. 105 

Let the teacher go forth. Let the pupils be many. Yea 
let all become students, and seek to familiarize themselves 
with their own wonderful natures. Let every home be 
made a study. Let every sitting-room table have on it an 
open book of physiological instruction. Let every library 
be well supplied with books on this subject. Let every 
room be hung around with charts. Let all young people 
at home and at school have daily lessons on health. And 
let all study the operations of their own systems, make 
experiments for themselves, and determine what is best 
for their own health. Systems differ a little. No abso- 
lute rule can be laid down for all to follow which would 
be of the highest practicable benefit to all. But the differ- 
ences are small. The general laws of health are universal. 
Let all seek the general laws of health, and the minute 
differences they will easily find out. Let youth remem- 
oer the long life that is before them, remember the great 
duties that devolve upon them, what they are, and what 
they ought to be, and then decide whether they will strive 
to be healthy and strong, free from disease, pain, physical 
debility and corruptions, that they may be and do what 
God, humanity, and their own happiness and well-being 
ask of them. 

5* 



LECTURE VII. 

TEMPEEANCE. 

A Deceitful Sea of Pleasure — Danger unconsciously Near — Elements of Intem- 
perance within Us — Save the Image of God from Blight — Bodily Pains preach 
Temperance — What is Intemperance — A Personal Test of Intemperance — 
Appetite, a Yoice of Warning — Drunkards not the only Intemperate — Eich 
Tables the Bane of Temperance — Little Eoots support the Main Trunk — Youth 
the Seed-ground of Wheat or Tares — Ultimate Effects of Temperance. 

He who stands upon the watch-tower of virtue should 
be faithful to give the alarm of danger when it is near. It 
should be sounded when the engulfing pool is yet in the 
distance, and the danger easily avoided. This duty too long 
neglected, and all is lost. 

He who is upon the present watch beholds a perilous 
scene before him. It is a maelstrom, dark, whirling, yawn- 
ing. It is roaring with wrecks, groans, and horrid ruin of 
fortunes and lives. It is named Intemperance , and is situ- 
ated in the very center of the great sea of pleasure. The 
waters which form this ruinous pool come in from every 
direction. They come not rushing and foaming, but with 
a gradual and gentle flow. So smoothly do they glide, 
that those who are riding upon their waves are scarcely 
ever aware that they are moving toward the pool. The 
waters break into scarcely perceptible ripples, long before 
they reach the sloping chasm, into which they plunge with 



DANGER UNCONSCIOUSLY NEAR. 107 

awful fury. The descent to It is so gentle as to be scarcely 
perceptible without the closest observation. Long may 
the thoughtless pleasure-seeker glide upon these waters, 
not dreaming that his bark is descending the rippling slope 
of danger. The sea is bright and beautiful ; and it looks 
to the inexperienced mariner even more so down the rip- 
pling descent. The starry gleams of the breaking waters 
invite him thither. Their glancing light attracts his gaze, 
and wins a desire to sail amid its varied and changing 
beauties. This variety adds a new desire, this desire pro- 
duces excitement, and this excitement bewilders judgment 
and stimulates to misguided actions. 

Thus, without being aware of danger, he glides at first 
slowly down, and then faster and still faster down, till the 
waters break into foam, and envelop him in a cloud of 
darkness, in the midst of which he is hurried on, and still 
on, to ruin. Thus is this fascinating sea of pleasure spread 
around the engulfing pool of intemperance, sloping in from 
every direction, inviting and still inviting its voyagers to sail 
down its danger-strewn declivities. Not one path alone 
leads to this sullen gulf of woe ; not one only current, as 
too many have supposed, hurries down this dark abyss ; 
but all around, on every side, the waters tend downward. 
There are a thousand currents leading in. Some, it is true, 
are more rapid than others. Some rush in quickly, and 
bear down all who ride upon their waters to quick and 
certain ruin. 

Others glide more slowly, but none the less surely, to 
the same end. The streams of intemperance are legion. 



108 ELEMENTS OF INTEMPERANCE WITHIN US. 

The allurements that lead downward are equally numerous. 
Every appetite, lust, passion, and feeling holds out various 
allurements to intemperate indulgence. There is not a 
power of the mind, affection of the heart, nor animal desire, 
that may not dispose to some form of intemperance, which 
may injure the body or paralyze the energies of the mind. 
All forms of intemperance are evil, and destroy some func- 
tion of body or mind, some member or faculty, the disease 
of which spreads in harmony through the whole. The 
dangers from this source are imminent and fearful, and 
spread on every hand. 

In former lectures the subjects of health of body and 
mind have been considered. We may now consider tem- 
perance as absolutely essential to both. 

A great poet has said : 

" Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense, 
Lie in these words, health, peace, and competence ; 
But health consists in temperance alone, 
And peace, virtue ! peace is all thy own." 

Health consists in temperance. This is the truth, this is 
the law, primary and essential, which every youth should 
know. Know ! Yes, know by heart. It should be writ- 
ten on every leaf and every living thing. Yea, it is written 
on all that lives and moves. Animals, birds, fishes, vege- 
tables — all are temperate but man, and all full of rosy, 
health but him. Will you not read it, O Youth ! this law 
of temperance 

See, thy cheek has a rose upon it, health's blushing pic- 
ture. Will you preserve it, to adorn the face of age ? Thy 



SAVE THE IMAGE OF GOD FSOM BLIGHT. 109 

step is elastic. Will you retain its elastic tread, to bear 
the rugged frame of a strong maturity, and give thy latter 
years this cheerful legacy ? Beauty is thine. Wilt thou 
let it dwell about thee, even till the snow-fall of thy winter 
whitens thy head ? Dost thou prize these gifts, which the 
good hand of thy Father hath bestowed upon thy youth % 
Tell the world how well you prize them by obeying the 
law by which they are preserved. That law is temperance. 
It is written in the statute-book of your bodies and minds. 
Will you read it, will you learn it? Its principles are 
simple and plain. You can be as wise upon them as any 
scholar, physician, or philosopher. You have all the great 
teachers of temperance in and about you. You have stom- 
achs, brains, nerves, bones, sinews, and muscles. You 
have mind, reason, conscience, affection. You have friends, 
country, and home. You have interests, hopes, and life. 
You have all the great ends and aims of a human being to 
accomplish. You have God, his Son, and Gospel. You 
have all that is true in thought, beautiful in life, and glo- 
rious in hope. All these are teachers of temperance. 
They all exhort you to a temperate mode of life. What 
more do you wish — what more can you ask ? They all 
give you daily lectures upon temperance. You have every 
thing — all the living voices of God, all His teachers, preach- 
ers, most eloquent expounders of truth and duty, reading 
you perpetual lectures on temperance. Surely the fault 
is yours if you do not heed them. Every thing bids you 
be temperate in all things — temperate in the gratification 
of your appetites, temperate in your pleasures, labors, de- 



110 BODILY PAINS PREACH TEMPERANCE. 

sires, amusements, hopes, actions, yea, in every possible 
way. 

When you have returned late at night from a pleasure 
party or frolic, and after an honr or two of feverish sleep, 
you have risen worn and weary, and out-of-sorts, have you 
not understood the lecture which your jaded body was then 
reading you ? It run thus : " Be more temperate in your 
amusements ; give me sleep and rest at proper times, and 
I will give you health and peace, and buoyancy of spirits.' 
There is no doubt but your stomachs read you lectures 
almost daily,, on the gratification of your appetites. Do 
you listen to them, and be instructed % Do you have pains 
in your stomach, burning sensations, water-brash, flatulency, 
or rising of wind, an unsatisfied feeling, a craving appetite, 
sourness, weakness, a bilious tendency, occasional pains 
and crampings, dyspepsia, or a tendency thereto, heaviness 
and drowsiness after eating, a tendency to take cold easily, 
without knowing why, headache, or a heaviness in the 
brain, a tainted breath, a troubled sleep, wandering or 
rheumatic pains 2 Have you one, or any, or all of these ? 
If so, you have a lecture on temperance as often as each 
one comes. They all tell you that you have been intem- 
perate, that you have indulged some appetite too freely 
and frequently, that you have transgressed some law, or 
laws, and ought to return immediately to the simple ways 
of temperance. They lecture you more to your interests 
than I can. They give you home lectures, " home-thrusts" 
with the sword of reproof. They announce the fact that 
ought to startle you, that you are destroying your physical 



WHAT IS INTEMPERANCE. Ill 

constitution, and marring the peace and welfare of your 
mind ; and hence are a sinner. They are the fore- warnings 
of death. They tell you you are a self-murderer, that your 
course is suicidal, that you have already planted a dagger 
in your own bosom. Why do not these lectures alarm 
you % Ah, they have been read so slowly and so long in 
your ears, that you mind them not. Little by little these 
troubles have come upon you. Slowly down the rippling 
slope you have glided. You will not believe you are 
tending toward the pool. But it is so. As surely as there 
is a pain in your body, so surely you have done wrong. 

Pain means penalty, and penalty means that its sufferer 
should reform. The most of our pains are occasioned by 
intemperance. This is the fruitful mother of ninety-nine 
one-hundred ths of the diseases that flesh is heir to, and the 
sins the soul doth commit. We sin by excess of anger, 
lust, appetite, affection, love of gain, authority, or praise. 
Few, if any, are the sins that grow not out of intemperance 
in some form. Intemperance means excess — more of a 
good thing than is necessary. A thing is good so long as 
it is necessary. All beyond necessity, or what is neces- 
sary, is evil. Money is good ; more than what is neces- 
sary to the ends of life is evil. Food is good ; too much 
is evil. Light is good ; too much will put out our eyes. 
Water is good ; too much will destroy us. Heat is good ; 
too much will burn us. The praise of men is good ; too 
much will ruin us. The love of life is good ; too much 
will make us miserable. Fear is good ; too much hath 
torment. Prayer is good ; too much cheats labor of its 



112 A PERSONAL TEST OF INTEMPERANCE. 

life, and is evil. Sympathy is good ; too much floods us 
with perpetual grief. Reason is good ; too hard pressed 
with labor, it dethrones the mind and spreads ruin abroad. 
Any excess in the use or activity of a good thing is intem- 
perance and therefore evil, and to be avoided. 

Intemperance, thou mother of harlots, thou abomination 
of the earth, thou curfew of iniquity, thou breeder of evil, 
sin, and misery ! when will youth learn to abhor thee as 
they ought, and to spurn thy lascivious allurements with a 
holy contempt ? 

But once again, my young friend, when you sit down to 
your breakfast, and find that the cook has forgotten to 
prepare the coffee, do you feel cross, or sad, or disappointed 
about it, as though you would have a poor meal, a dry 
meal, a scant meal, no meal at all, without it ? Or, when 
you come to the supper-table, and find a glass of clear, un- 
adulterated cold water by your plate, and the cook informs 
you that she is out of tea, does the table look bare and dry 
without it, your appetite fail, your spirits droop, and a 
chiding, fault-finding spirit rise up within you to complain 
of something? Or, when you put your hand into your 
pocket, and find that your tobacco is gone, or your pipe 
broken, or your cigars smoked up, or your snuffbox empty, 
do you feel a sort of uneasy, down-in-the-mouth, fish-out- 
of- water feeling, as though something was wrong, as though 
your intemperate indulgence had created an appetite which 
could not now be gratified, as though a morbid, diseased, 
unnatural condition of some of the organs of your system 
had been engendered ? 



APPETITE, A VOICE OF WARNING. 113 

These very feelings are temperance lectures. They are 
voices of warning, presentiments of approaching ruin, of 
disease and death, which you are bringing upon yourself. 
They are assurances of the murderous course you are pur- 
suing, cutting daily the threads of life which God has given 
you to cherish and preserve, The very appetite itself by 
which these uneasy and unnatural feelings are engendered, 
is a lecture on temperance, and ought to be so regarded. 
The very desire for stimulants of any kind, ought to be 
regarded as a voice of warning against intemperance. This 
is its true meaning; Says Christ : " He that hateth his 
brother is a murderer;" " He that lusteth after a woman 
is an adulterer ;" " He that coveteth his neighbor's goods 
is a thief." He has the murderer, adulterer, and thief in 
heart. It follows that he that desires stimulants, though he 
may never use them, is intemperate. This unnatural, in- 
temperate desire should be conquered, completely mas- 
tered, by a resolute temperance will. We have no right to 
possess or cherish any such appetites or desires. Evil is 
in them. And they bid us be wise, and on the look-out. 
Temperance as a virtue dwells in the heart. It consists in 
a rigid subjection of every inward feeling and power to the 
rule of right reason. He who would be thoroughly tern 
perate, must master himself. His passions must be his 
subjects, obeying his will. From the heart he must be 
temperate. The youth who would live a temperate life 
must see to it that the principles of temperance establish 
their reign in his heart of hearts. He must remember 
that the intemperance slope is an almost imperceptible 



114 DRUNKARDS NOT THE ONLY INTEMPERATE. 

one, and that he may be gliding down it when he dreams 
of naught but safety. He must remember, too, that the 
field of temperance is a broad one, covering the whole are? 
of life. It is not simply against one form of appetite, one 
species of indulgence, that he is to guard, but against all 
The drunkard is not the only intemperate man, nor his the 
only intemperance we are to fear. It is true, his is a fear 
fill one, a chasm of war, a dark abyss of wretchedness. He 
is worthy of our deepest commiseration. Charity should 
flow like a river in his behalf. Pity should become a fount 
ain of tears, and be wept for him. We should make him 
feel that the souls of the good bleed for him, that all kind 
people desire and pray for his reform, that the church pe- 
titions daily for his return, that there would be joy in a 
million hearts besides his own, joy on earth, and joy in 
heaven, if he would reform. All we can feel, and all we 
can do, we should feel and do for the drunkard. His awful 
evil we should avoid by touching never one drop of alco- 
holic poison. It is death, ruin, woe intolerable, horror, 
living with scorpion stings and remorseless demons. Avoid 
it ! Every youth should detest it, despise it, abhor it with 
the power of a giant contempt. He should loathe, with 
sickening disgust, the whole process of drunkard-making. 
He should spew upon the whole system of liquor-drinking 
as upon the spawn of hell, which breed naked devils and 
hot damnation. Frown ! He should scowl upon him who 
asks him to drink, and feel a holy indignation at the das- 
tardly insult. 

But while he thus heartily despises the drunkard's in- 



RICH TABLES THE BANE OF TEMPERANCE- 115 

temperance, he should not forget that his is but one form 
of this giant evil. There are other species of intemperate 
indulgence of which we are all more or less guilty, even 
indulgence of appetite, that carries more victims from the 
earth than does drunkenness, and spreads a wider devasta- 
tion and a more general blight. We lecture the drunkard 
day after day and year after year, but seldom think of 
lecturing ourselves. We have thirty-and-nine lashes for 
him. and none for ourselves. We have a thousand-and- 
one good-for-nothing practices, while he has one, just one, 
of which we complain. 

I have often thought that if I was a drunkard, I would 
lecture back to these good people who talk so loudly of 
his intemperance, and so little of their own. I would tell 
them of their teas, and coffees, and tobacco ; of their beers, 
and sodas, and sarsaparillas ; of their peppers, spices, and 
condiments ; of their greases, gravies, and indigestible 
fixings ; of their hot rolls, and heavy rolls, and pound 
rolls; of their tables that groan, and their stomachs that 
groan worse ; of the innocent animals they kill and eat, 
and of the animals they make of themselves ; of the way 
they live and labor, to eat and live and suffer, after they 
do eat ; of the gouts, rheumatisms, fevers, tumors, can- 
cers, scrofulas, dyspepsias, diarrheas, and thousand-and-one 
miserable diseases they produce by their miserable intem- 
perance. I should have a wide field to lay open before 
them, the horrors of which, if they had any hearts, would 
make them blush — blush to think that they had abased 
themselves and their neighbors and children so much — not 



116 LITTLE BOOTS SUPPOET THE MAIN TRUNK. 

to think they had lectured the drunkard so much, but 
themselves so little — to think they had transgressed almost 
as many physical and moral laws as he. If they should 
tell me of my miserable physical condition, I would read 
them a lecture on the long list of ailments, pains, and 
weaknesses which infect their blasted and worn-out bodies, 
as an offset. Thus, if I were a drunkard, I would be 
strongly tempted to show those who should attempt to 
lecture me, that temperance lecturing was a game at which 
two could play. This, however, would not excuse my 
drunkenness. It would only be another sad proof that 
misery loves company. It is evident that if we would in- 
duce the drunkard to reform, we must reform ourselves. 
If we would get the beam out of his eye, we must remove 
the mote from our own eye ; or else he will say, " Physician, 
heal thyself," " Preacher, practice thy doctrines." We can 
not reasonably expect to destroy the use of intoxicating 
drinks, unless we destroy the many forms of intemperance 
that lead to the use of such drinks ; especially by moral 
suasion. One kind of intemperance can not well be 
singled out and rooted alone from the community. This 
would be unphilosophical in theory, as well as impossible 
in practice. All kinds of intemperance originate in one 
plea. They have a common origin — a common parentage. 
I refer to the various modes of intemperance in the grati- 
fication of appetite. One of these can not be singled out 
and destroyed, while the rest remain in full vigor. The 
use of strong drinks can not be totally abolished from the 
community while the use of many other stimulants re- 



YOUTH THE BEED-&BOUNB OF WHEAT OR TARES. 11 i 

pnj}in« The reason is obvious. A reformation of this kind 
must be radical and thorough. It must reach the heart 
and rest in moral right. It must be a moral reformation, 
and must be effected by a thorough enlightenment of the 
moral man. 

Such an enlightenment will cure every species of intem- 
perate indulgence of appetite as well as one. A whole 
community can not be induced to desist from any particular 
form of indulgence in appetite without being thoroughly 
enlightened upon the general principles of temperance 
which cover every form of indulgence. The majority may 
reform ; but I apprehend that it will be exceedingly diffi- 
: to work a complete reformation in the whole commu- 
nity, without a general practice of the principles of tem- 
tnce in all things pertaining to appetite. 

All species of intemperance grows out of a want of self- 
control. To be a temperance man, a man must master 
himself — must be a brave, noble conquerer of every enemy 
within his own bosom. It is no small matter. It is the 
masterpiece of human attainments. 

To establish thoroughly and widely the principles of 
temperance, we must begin with the youth. They have 
high aspirations to .be good and true. They ^ee a glory 
in the path of right. Freedom is a word of power in 
their ears. Virtue has many charms, not only for their 

arts but for their imaginations. They love health, com- 

bency, and happiness. They are ambitious of every 
B xl. 

When the principles of temperance inculcated in this 



118 ULTIMATE EFFECTS OF TEMPERANCE. 

lecture are established in early youth, and are made the 
polar star of life, they will injure health, freedom from 
pain, competency, respectability, honor, virtue, usefulness, 
and happiness — yea, all for which true men live or hope in 
this life. Oh, that they could be general, that all youth 
would practice them, would build their life edifices upon 
them ! Then would freedom ring out her notes of triumph, 
religion assert her mild and gentle sway, peace plant her 
olive wreath in every nation, wisdom, divine and time- 
honored, shed everywhere her glorious light, and the 
millennium be established indeed. A race of men and 
women, full of rosy health, strong, active, symmetrical, 
beautiful as the artist's model; pure, virtuous, wise, affec- 
tionate, full of honor and lofty principle, would grow up 
into communities and nations, and make the earth bloom 
and rejoice in more than Eden gladness. A new heaven 
and a new earth would surround us with beauty, and arch 
us over with glory, for the old would have passed away. 



LECTURE VIII. 

AMUSEMENTS. 

Laughter is Purely Human — Conflicting Opinions on Amusements — Importance 
of a Eight Decision—Amusement a Xatural Instinct — Xature a Great and Just 
Teacher — "Why does Man crave Amusement? — Mirthfulness a Primitive Fac- 
ility — Hilarity promotes Health — Quality of Amusements — Excess a Source of 
Dissipation— Exciting Amusements Dangerous — Proper Amusement Spiritual 
Enjoyment — Amusement should blend with Duty — Home the chief Scene of 
Amusement — Foreign Amusements Unsafe— Amusement removes Care and 
Sorrow — Labor and Eecreation should not Conflict — Home made Happy by 
Amusements. 

See that man yonder in a fit of laughter. Take a fair 
look at him ; his mouth stretched from ear to ear ; his 
eyes half shut ; his whole face in strange contortions ; his 
sides shaking, apparently just ready to burst. A minute 
more and he may explode. Survey him coolly, with the 
eye of sober philosophy. Can any thing be more sub- 
limely silly than his appearance '? He presents an idea of 
the ridiculous on a scale of grandeur seldom surpassed. 
This is the decision of that staid old vinegar-faced philoso- 
phy which has had not a little to do in molding human 
character. Laughing is a human amusement, and if not 
immoderately indulged in, has not a little sound philosophy 
in it. To laugh just right and at the proper time is prac- 
tical good sense. Some people exhibit more good sense 
in laughing than others do in preaching. I have known a 



120 CONFLICTING OPINIONS ON AMUSEMENTS. 

laugh express more than a labored essay. Opinions differ 
about laughing ; but my pen is induced to write the con 
viction, that laughing has a philosophy in it that will not 
be practically denied for generations to come. 

From time immemorial there has been a difference of 
opinion among men, and women, too, concerning amuse 
ments. There has been a class of sedate, sober people, 
who have invariably opposed nearly all amusements which 
another class of more buoyant and light-hearted natures 
have felt themselves irresistibly impelled to seek. One 
has whined, and scolded, and snarled at amusements ; the 
other has plead for them in right good earnest, and some 
times with a tart sharpness. This difference of opinion has 
created a war of words, and not unfrequently a war of 
spirit, which sometimes has been very bitter between the 
opposing parties. The question has occurred to me, 
whether there is not really more sin in this warfare than 
there is in the amusements themselves, admitting them to 
be as wrong as they are charged with being. Whether it 
is more sinful to dance, when one does it from very joyous 
ness of spirit, or to be angry because another has danced, 
is a question which, it seems to me, is not very difficult to 
decide, especially in the light of that law which says, " He 
that is angry with his brother without a cause, is a mur- 
derer." Now I would not be understood to believe that 
this is a question of no importance, but I can not think it 
worth my while to quarrel with my neighbor about it, for 
him it is my duty to love. I very much doubt the pro- 
priety of quarrelling about any question. I do not think 



IMPORT AXCE OF A RIGHT DECISION. 121 

anger is very becoming in any person, not even in a sedate, 
sober person, much less in a religious one. I once saw a 
minister half angry. I know " it was not pretty in him." 
This question of amusements is one that not a little inter- 
ests the happiness and well-being of society, and is truly 
worthy of our calm consideration. If I had not deemed 
the subject worthy of serious attention and thought, I 
should not have introduced it here, to detain my readers 
from other interesting and useful subjects. Time is money, 
and thought is more. Whatever is to affect the time and 
thoughts of men in this great world is vastly important. 
That which affects their time and thoughts affects their 
characters, and their characters affect their moral standing 
in the sight of God and men, in this world and in the next ; 
and what affects their moral standing affects their peace 
and happiness. Then this subject is of immense import- 
ance, rising in solemn grandeur before us, and inviting the 
most serious and prayerful consideration. It is more than 
a question of momentary fun and frolic, but one on the 
decision of which hang immense and far-reaching conse- 
quences. Yea, its results are stupendous. Many a genius 
of the rarest promise has gone down in a whirlpool of dis- 
sipation by a wrong decision of this question. And many 
a blooming daughter of talent and beauty has become the 
sport of the most abandoned flatterers, a thing of common 
contempt, from the same cause. Little do we imagine at 
first thought the extent and importance of this subject. It 
affects the whole community. Half the dissipation and 
wickedness in civilized society grow out of ill-directed 

6 



122 AMUSEMENT A NATURAL INSTINCT 

amusements; and not a little disease, despondency, and 
peevishness, originate in a want of proper amusements. 
Time, money, character, happiness, are all involved in this 
question. It is a question of philosophy, of political 
policy and interest, of right and duty, of religion. It is 
both serious and important. Let us look it in the face. 
Amusements, it seems to me, are not only right and pro- 
per, but absolutely essential to our highest well-being in 
life. Not only does health require them, but virtue and 
religion stand in need of them as aids. 

In the first place, it may not be amiss to observe that 
they are natural. It seems that the great and beneficent 
Creator has written in the heart of every living thing the 
command, " Amuse thyself." And all beings that are 
natural^ or that obey the divine laws, written not on 
parchment but in their very beings, all that yield not to 
artificial restraints, that have not been cramped in the 
growth of their powers, have not been manacled by the 
fetters of an unjust, unnatural, and ungrateful education, 
yield an agreeable and joyous obedience to this divine 
command. We are too apt to despise the teachings of 
nature, as though her voice was not the voice of God ; as 
though she had sinned against the divine behest, and was 
at war with the Being that made her. If we would learn 
more of nature and less of the rules of artificial life, far 
better would it be for us. There is a transcendent beauty 
in the divine simplicity of nature which we should do well 
to imitate. 

If there is any human being that is more lovely than 



NATURE A GREAT AND JCST TEACHER. 123 

any other, it is the one who lives nearest the simplicity of 
nature, who acts himself as a very child, who personifies 
his free, unshackled soul in his outward life. When Christ 
said the kingdom of heaven is composed of little children, 
He meant that the inhabitants of that free and glorious 
realm are natural and not artificial, are as God made them, 
and not as society made them* are subject to the laws 
written in their own souls, and not to conventional restric- 
tions, are guided implicitly and trustingly by the Spirit of 
God within them, and not by the spirit of pride and envy 
aroused by the unholy exactions of a false and sinful state 
of society. Truly is nature a great and just teacher, and 
if w r e can understand her voice we may be confident that 
it is none other than the voice of the Being Divine, All 
natural beings are a law unto themselves. And this is the 
great result aimed at in the gospel. It is to make men 
natural, a law unto themselves, real children of God. 

If, then, we find that amusements are taught by nature, 
we ought to feel that the instruction is worthy of respect, 
and be guided by it. 

What mean the frolics of the lamb, the gay prances of 
the horse, the jocund sports of the dog, the gambols of the 
squirrel amid the tree-tops, the dances of the birds to their 
own music, on light, fantastic wings'? What means the 
general joy of the animal creation, spoken out in their 
sports, their endless diversity of amusements, as varied 
and gay as the colors among flowers, or the forms of 
beauty on the clouds of heaven? What means the glad- 
some gayety which rings through the morning air of spi 



124 WHY DOES MAN CRAYE AMUSEMENT? 

and gives gladness to the sweet hour of sunset ] What 
means the joyous influence which steals into our own hearts 
when we go out to make nature a friendly visit, provoking 
us to sing with the birds and frolic with the lambkins ? 
What means that merry-making inspiration which creeps, 
in the spirit of mirthfulness, along our every nerve, when 
we meet with a company of friends who have made glad 
our hearts with a thousand smiles ? What mean the 
games, plays, feasts, festivals, dances, bonfires, and illu- 
minations which are found in all countries and times, and 
among all nations of the earth, if they do not declare that 
amusements are as natural as breath, and as universal as 
life ? What mean the innocent jokes which are flung, in 
playfulness of spirit, at each other, among all people? 
What mean the glancing confiscations of wit which glitter 
in the circles of the best men and women of which our 
world can boast? What mean all the little pleasantries 
which pass from tongue to tongue like electric sparks of 
joy, wherever human beings find pleasure in each other's 
society % Are they so many evidences of internal deprav- 
ity % Then, truly, they are beautiful ones, and such as 
would not mar the peace of heaven. They must be re- 
garded as nature's argument for amusements. Moreover, 
the instructions of mental science are clear upon this point. 
That teaches that the Creator of the human mind has 
written out His will upon this subject, in the faculty of 
mirthfulness which He has given to every human creature, 
as a part of its mental character. 

We judge that it is right to seek out the relation of 



MIRTHFCXNESS A PRIMITIVE FACULTY. 125 

cause and effect in all things, because we are endowed with 
reason. We believe it right to extend the hand and heart 
of charity to our fellows, because the principle of benevo- 
lence is made a part of our mental constitution, and urges 
us continually to obey its dictates. We suppose it right 
to worship God, because we have a mental faculty, the 
office of which is to worship. We believe it right to be 
attached to our friends, because we are endowed with an 
internal power of affection, which will never rest till it is 
gratified with its desired attainments. So, as we have a 
mental faculty, the object and office of which is to make 
and enjoy amusements, and which finds its life-aliment in 
them, we ought to believe that amusements are right and 
proper, and are thus established as the legitimate offspring 
of this mental power which He has conferred upon His 
creatures. 

We thus see that nature with one universal voice 
teaches amusements ; that humanity, speaking out from 
all nations and times, teaches a lesson on amusements, 
and that the soul of man, with a voice that can never 
be mistaken, and should never be unheeded, teaches that it 
is God's will, written in the mental constitution, that His 
creature, man, should make himself merry in amusements. 

There is much in this world that is dark and gloomy. 
There are a thousand little troubles, trials, and disappoint- 
ments, which vex and make us sad. There are hardships? 
toils, and fatigues, which would wear down and make 
gloomy our spirits, were it not for this merry-making fel- 
low within us, who spices up life most admirably with his 



126 HILARITY PROMOTES HEALTH 

jocularity and sport. Nothing is more paralyzing to the 
mental energies, or more destructive of moral power, than 
a fixed and sullen sadness, or a cpld, cheerless, benighted 
state of mind. 

Cheerfulness is absolutely essential to the mind's healthy 
action, or the performance of its proper duties. The mind 
unmoved by the spirit which dwells in amusements, un- 
visited by the gales of mirthfulness, is like the ocean sleep- 
ing in the cold lap of earth, unmoved by a breeze and 
unstirred by a tide. It is still, pulseless, powerless, and 
will soon become stagnant, dead — a great pool of corrup- 
tion, in which no living thing can dwell, from which no 
healthful influence can go out. Without the influence of 
this same spirit of cheerfulness, the body would lose its 
vitality, would grow cold, inert, feeble, sickly ; making 
not only a cheerless and lonely dwelling-place for the 
mind, but one sickly and miasmatic. No charming habit- 
ation, no sweet, healthy home, no sunny elysium, w r here 
all its faculties and powers can bathe themselves in light, 
and breathe the fresh, w r holesome airs of young life, can it 
find in such a body. Nothing gives more of real vitality 
of body, sparkling in the rosy cheek, and elastic step, and 
symmetrical beauty, than a due amount of proper and well- 
directed amusement. And, as a healthy and uncontami- 
nated body is necessary for a pure and elevated mind, it 
follows that the intellectual, moral, and social condition of 
the being within is improved by the vigor and glow of 
health given by the cheerful influences of amusements. 
But the question more difficult to decide to the satisfaction 



QUALITY OF AMUSEMENTS. ^127 

of all is, as to what amusements are proper, what gives 
the glow of health to the physical and moral man, and im- 
pair not in any manner, the rightful and proper action of 
either. Some amusements are good and some bad. In 
nothing is sound judgment more needed than in the choice 
of amusements. It does not follow that because amuse- 
ments are proper and useful, every thing is proper that 
is amusing. Very much of the good of amusements de- 
pends upon the kind, and still more the amount. 

I. And this leads me to remark that amusements, what- 
ever they may be, should not be immoderately exciting. 

There is always a tendency in the human mind to go to 
some extreme, to the end of the road it is traveling. Give 
it rope enough and it will hang itself. It is so in labor, in 
rest, in politics, religion, and all things ; and especially so 
in amusements. As a general thing, that faculty which is 
gratified most pleads the most for more. Extremes in 
amusements, like extremes in every thing else, are injuri- 
ous. Whenever they are made unduly exciting, or are 
carried to excess, they become absolutely evil. They dis- 
sipate the mind, intoxicate the brain with the wild enthu 
siasm of delight, waste the solid energies of the soul, 
destroy the equilibrium of the faculties, break up their har- 
monious action, and establish a positive discord within ; 
besides being injurious to the health. To be drunk with 
amusement is more injurious than to be drunk with alco- 
hol. It is a paralysis of all lofty purposes and moral 
vigor. A trifling, good-for-nothing thing is a soul intoxi- 
cated with amusements. 



128* EXCESS A SOUECE OF DISSIPATION. 

It is the evil of this excess in amusements that has 
stamped them with a stigma in the minds of many of the 
more sober and sedate. They have seen the evil, and de- 
plored it. There is a greater tendency to abuse amuse 
ments than almost any thing else, on account of their 
exhilarating effects. They produce a sort of intoxication 
in the animal spirits, which imparts itself to the mind, and 
leads it on in a bewilderment of superabundant life, not un 
frequently to an injurious excess. Among real lovers of 
amusements they are almost always abused. They are 
permitted to occupy too much attention, and the giddy 
maze of their follies becomes a whirl of dissipation. There 
is great danger of this among active, buoyant, high 
spirited youth. Those of such a nature should be ex 
tremely cautious in the kind of amusements they choose, 
avoiding the most exciting, and in the influence they per 
mit them to have upon their minds. There is great dan- 
ger in excesses. They should be avoided always. The 
most scrupulous watchfulness should be entertained by 
every such youth against these excesses. The gay dream 
of merriment should never become bewildering, should 
never unfit us for the performance of our duties, should 
never make cheerless and uninviting the solid avocations 
of life. 

The first step in excess is one step in sin. We must 

always remember that the kingdom of evil borders closely 

upon the kingdom of good. Wrong is the next-door 

neighbor to right. Intemperance is only one step from 

emperance. Sin begins where righteousness ends. Diso- 



EXCITING AMUSEMENTS DANGEROUS. 129 

bedience joins possessions with obedience. This should 
teach us to keep discretion on the watch-tower with vigil 
ance by his side, that we may never become intoxicated 
with gayety, nor rudely excited with amusement. This is 
the rock on which many a youth has split his bark of life. 
Amusements have dissipated his mind, stolen his heart, 
corrupted his manners and morals, eaten up his earnings, 
made him the child of folly, and the dupe of an insatiable 
desire for a life of giddiness. The soundest wisdom 
should not only direct our amusements but our enjoyment 
of them. The more exciting any amusement is, the more 
dangerous it is. I say dangerous, yes, dangerous — that is 
the word. It is truly so. 

Alluring are the paths of folly, that lead out in many 
directions from the scenes of intoxicating amusements. 
Amuse yourself in moderation, youth. Be not intemper- 
ate. All the good of any amusement comes from its use 
m moderation. The object of amusements is not to intox- 
icate, but to make cheerful ; not to bewilder, but to en- 
lighten ; not to degrade, but to elevate. Be prudent, be 
cautious, be wise. Be glad, but not rude. Be happy, but 
not wild. Be gay, but not boisterous. Be simple, but 
not silly. 

II. People usually seek amusements, as they say, " for 
the fun of it." They seek them to " kill time," to dissi- 
pate sorrow, for their stimulating effects, etc. They have 
no high purpose in view, and hence get no elevated good 
from them. To have their proper influence, amusements 
must be sought, not simply " to have a good time," but 

6* 



130 PROPER AMUSEMENT SPIRITUAL ENJOYMENT. 

for their healthy and invigorating influence upon the body 
and mind. We should seek them for their real utility. 
We should enjoy them because we feel that they are right ; 
because they are of real service to moral and accountable 
beings; because they increase our capacities for real en- 
joyment ; because they harmonize our powers, quicken 
our activities, accelerate the pulses of both the inner and 
outer life, humanize our feelings, and refine our sympa- 
thies. We should seek them as we would any other good, 
as we would a feast of reason or flow of soul, as a duty 
which we owe ourselves and the world. This gives them 
a moral aspect, places them among the means of moral im- 
provement. Then the moral feelings enjoy them, the con- 
science enters into the gladness, the whole upper soul 
sparkles with delight. Most thrillingly intense is the 
pleasure of amusements thus rationally enjoyed. They 
are not then merely animal pleasures, but spiritual enjoy- 
ments. They should really stand side by side with the 
institutions of morality and religion^ as aids, and not ene- 
mies to these. There are many excellent and useful 
amusements which have become degrading in the eyes of 
many good people, from their abuse. They have done 
real evil, have sown the seeds of vice, and brought forth 
rich harvests of woe. They have been prostituted to evil, 
till they are now altogether corrupt in their influences. 
They might be mighty engines for moral good, whereas 
they are instruments of untold corruption. They have 
not been sought and enjoyed with a proper view, and 
have been abused on this account. This abuse has very 



•FLD BLEND WITH DUTT. 131 

naturally brought reproach upon the amusements them- 
selves. 

If we would regard amusements as a part of our edu- 
cation, a part of the moral training which we must receive 
: our natures and refine our sympathies, very dif- 
ferently would they be viewed. Much, very much, might 
well-conducted and well-chosen amusements do to render 
us more interesting and agreeable to each other, more grace- 
uid natural in our manners, and more ready and 
able to perform well our various duties in life. Much 
more cheerful, refined, kind, and happy, might society be 
y the influence of proper amusements, sought with 
refine, elevate, and gladden the whole moral and 
physical being. 

III. To be really useful, amusements should be inti- 
mately blended with all the labors of life. Instead of 
being entirely separated from every thing else, and set 
by themselvv me chosen place and time, they 

should mingle with, and color with a ray of brightness, the 
whole web of life. They should be made so easy of ac- 
so much at hand,, and so readily attained, that without 
much effort, or expense, or loss of time, they might glad- 
den life with their sunshine, give vermilion to the blood, 
to the soul upward every day. When they are 
sought only at eert as of festivity, at long intervals 

of time, and then with great pomp and eclat, they are 
almost sure to be abused. They generally result in abso- 
Bvil. They become scenes of improper excitement, 
and n f trouble and discord. They ei 



132 HOME THE CHIEF SCENE OF AMUSEMENT. 

too much the thoughts, fix too strongly the attention, they 
bewilder and dazzle too much the mind. And when they 
are over, no good can be determined upon with any degree 
of certainty, and often much evil is clearly the result. 
Such amusements are unnatural and improper, and should 
be everywhere discouraged. To be profitable, amuse- 
ments should be frequent and simple, such as give grace 
and vigor to the body, animation and vivacity to the mind, 
refinement to the manners, and harmony and happiness 
to the whole being. To do this, they must be skillfully 
and frequently interspersed with the business, and duties, 
and ordinary avocations of life. They should give cheer- 
fulness, vivacity, and peace, to every-day life. And in 
seasons when they can, they should be sought out of doors, 
in the open, health-giving air, among the bright, gay things 
of nature ; on the hills, amid the vales ; in the groves ; by 
the sparkling cascade ; where there is life and beauty ; 
where every thing has a voice of instruction and a song of 
joy. And they should be made, so far as possible, intel- 
lectually and morally interesting. They should be mingled 
with our studies, interspersed with our labors, and woven 
into the web of life ; but should always be directed by judg- 
ment and sanctioned by virtue, propriety, and rectitude. 
IV. It is a clear dictate of reason, that the chief scene 
of amusements should be at home. Around home clusters 
all that the heart holds dear. Here is the scene of the 
most of our labors and trials. Here are our chief joys, 
our bitterest sorrows. Here are nearly all our real expe- 
riences in life. Here are our wants, and here should be our 



FOREIGN AMUSEMENTS UNSAFE. 133 

supplies, and here should be the scene of our gayety, mer- 
riment, and joy. Here should be the real music of life. 
Here should be its gladdest pleasures, its mirth and spright- 
liness. There is but little danger from an excess of home 
amusements. Dissipation is usually found abroad. Inju- 
rious excitements are nearly all away from home. The 
evils of amusements are absent from this sacred place. At 
home amusements may be guarded from all harm. Asso- 
ciates and associations may be such as they should be. 
Amusements may here be varied at pleasure and directed 
at will. One reason why amusements have become objects 
of dread with many people is, because they have been 
driven from the sacred protection of the fireside ; they have 
been exiled from the only place where they can be safely 
indulged in, and banished to places from which, in truth, 
modesty and virtue ought to shrink back. They have 
been forced amid associations corrupt and evil. Having 
been found in bad company, they have been dishonored. 
If they had been kept at home, where they should be, they 
might still have been honored guests of that blessed sanc- 
tuary. Thousands of youth have been ruined or greatly 
injured, in a moral point of view, by feeling compelled to 
go away from home for the amusements which their natures 
impelled them to desire. 

Every home should be a little world, furnishing at least 
a little of all that its- inmates want to make them happy. 
Let parents see well to this, and they will not be compel- 
led to see their children weary of home. I do feel that 
our homes are not what they should be ; they are not 



134 AMUSEMENT REMOVES CARE AND SORROW. 

attractive enough ; are not furnished with such places and 
means of sport, play, feats, tricks, as the wants of children 
and youth require. Every home should have a play- 
ground and play-room, with the means to practice all the 
little innocent sports that childhood and youth are so ready 
to invent and engage in. There should be a season set 
apart every day, when it is practicable, when some kind 
of amusement should be engaged in. It may be simply 
conversation brisk and active, or it may be a regular child- 
like frolic; any thing to unbend both body and mind. 
There is more rest often in an hour's amusement than in a 
whole night's repose. Rest, either of body or mind, is 
found in change, more than repose. The care-ladened 
mind recovers quickly from its fatigue, when its cares are 
thrown off in some jocund sport or scene of wit. The 
wearied body will often recruit its activity and strength 
with brisk bodily exercise, in some stirring and interesting 
amusement. How often does the sober old grand-dame 
fretfully exclaim to the troop of children and youth about 
her, " Never too tired to play." How many thousand 
times have I heard that rung in the ears of happy young 
people, who were enjoying a scene of merriment, after a 
hard day's labor, as though they were absolutely wasting 
strength. The truth is, they were gaining strength. It is 
no expenditure of strength or energy to enjoy heartily a 
proper amusement, when one is fatigued. Youth should 
never be too tired to engage in either physical or mental 
amusement. When they are thus fatigued their bodies 
are over-taxed. 



LABOR AND RECREATION SHOULD NOT CONFLICT. 135 

It is wicked thus to wear out young life, and health, and 
strength. All young people should labor, and labor briskly ; 
and so should children. They should always have their daily 
labors, in which they may make themselves useful. No 
duty is more binding than this ; and no philosophy more 
plain than that which points out this. But that labor 
should never be so hard as to crush their spirits, or so 
fatigue their bodies that they have no relish for amuse- 
ments. Often in early youth have I come from the field 
of labor at night, after working briskly and cheerfully all 
day, and thrown a ball against the barn for a full hour, all 
alone, just because I loved to do it ; or jumped on a pole, 
over all the fences about the homestead ; or run for an 
hour on the tops of stone walls and board fences, to try 
my skill at balancing ; and then retired to rest, refreshed 
by my sports. I know, by a happy experience, that labor 
only makes amusements all the more agreeable and use- 
ful. Give me the youth that labor, for real sport. They 
understand the "fun of it.'' Amusements, like rest, can 
not be enjoyed without previous labor. Then again, fre- 
quently have I come from the field, so jaded and weary 
that every muscle in my body moaned for rest, when 
amusements looked disgusting, and the door-stone was a 
soft bed ; where for an hour I would lie in refreshing stu- 
por, before retiring. That was labor with a vengeance. 
But the fault was mine. Young ambition prompted it. 
Such labor I know to be injurious. 

Bitter experience h;is taught me, that when youth are 
too fatigued to enjoy amusements, they have over-worked. 



136 HOME MADE HAPPY BY AMUSEMENTS. 

A proper amount of labor, well-spiced with sunny sports, 
is almost absolutely necessary to the formation of a firm, 
hardy, physical constitution, and a cheerful and happy 
mind. Let all youth not only learn to choose and enjoy 
proper amusements, but let them learn to invent them at 
home, and use them there, and thus form ideas of such 
homes as they shall wish to have their own children enjoy. 
Not half the people know how to make a home. * It is one 
of the greatest and most useful studies of life to learn how 
to make a home — such a home as men, and women, and 
children should dwell in. It is a study that should be 
early introduced to the attention of youth. It would be 
well if books were written upon this most interesting sub- 
ject, giving many practical rules and hints, with a long 
chapter on Amusements 



LECTURE! IX. 

MUSIC. 

What Music really \s> — Power and Influence of Music — The Soul Baptized in 
Music — Music a Universal Language — The Harmony of the Universe — Music 
is the Voice of Love — Music the Voice of Worship— Cultivation of Music — 
Music a Spiritualizer — Prostitution of Music — Music an Essential of Education. 

Music is the poetry of sound. It embraces harmony, 
concord, and melody. It moves with the succession of the 
same or similar sounds, and moves on velvet wings, waved 
so gently and gracefully, that naught but onward motion 
is known or felt. Whatever sound produces the charm of 
melody in the soul, wakes up all its Eolian strings to 
breathing symphonies within, unheard, but felt like the 
spirit-notes of a rapt vision, is music. Whatever sound, 
or succession of sounds, makes us forget that we are dwell- 
ers of earth, and lifts us, for the time being, into a world 
of living harmonies, which come and go, entrance and be- 
wilder, captivate and hold in trembling delight our minds, 
like the electric color-dances of the Aurora Borealis, is real 
music. It is a thing to be felt, not described. It is not 
sound simply ; for all sound is not music. It is a peculiar, 
indescribable running together, or blending of certain 
smooth sounds of different heights, like the gliding to- 



138 POWER AND INFLUENCE OF MUSIC. 

gether of the different colors of the rainbow. Its presence 
is tested only by the charm wrought in the soul. 

When the soul is in ecstasy, occasioned by a succession 
of sounds, we may know that music numbers are flowing. 
When a soft sound starts a tear in the eye, we may know 
that the spirit of music is there. O the rapturous charm 
of Music ! What power it has to soften, melt, enchain in 
its spirit-chords of subduing harmony ! Truly there is 
power in music ; an almost omnipotent power. It will 
tyrannize over the soul. It will force it to bow clown and 
worship, it will wring adoration from it, and compel the 
heart to yield its treasures of love. Every emotion, from 
the most reverent devotion to the wildest gushes of frolic- 
some joy, it holds subject to its imperative will. It calls 
the religious devotee to worship, the patriot to his country's 
altar, the philanthropist to his generous work, the freeman 
to the temple of liberty, the friend to the altar of friend- 
ship, the lover to the side of his beloved. It elevates, em- 
powers, and strengthens them all. The human soul is a 
mighty harp, and all its strings vibrate to the gush of music. 
Yet all souls are not the same harp, nor are all affected 
alike by its power. Some will listen to the most exquisite 
music with only an agreeable pleasure, while others are 
carried heavenward in a whirlwind of bewildering joy. 

One writer describes the effect of Lizst's piano, playing 
upon him, in the following enthusiastic strain : " With 
blow after blow upon the instrument, with his whole force, 
he planted large columnar masses of sound, like the Giant's 
Causeway. The instrument rained, hailed, thundered, 



THE SOUL BAPTIZED IN MUSIC. 139 

moaned, whistled, shrieked, round those basaltic columns 
in every cry that the tempest can utter in its wildest par 

oxysms of wrath." " Then we were borne along 

through countless beauties of rock, and sky, and foliage, 
to a grotto, by the side of which was a fountain, that 
seemed one of the eyes of the earth, so large and darkly 
brilliant was it, so deep and so serene. Here we listened 
to the voices rather than the songs of birds, when the 
music by degrees diminished, then fluttered and ceased." 

Mrs. Childs speaks thus of her sensations at listening to 
the music of a master of this divine art : " How he did it, 
I know as little as I know how the sun shines or how the 
spring brings forth its blossoms. I only know that music 
came from his soul into mine, and carried it upward to 

worship with angels." "It overcame me like a 

miracle. I felt that my soul was for the first time baptized 
in music; that my spiritual relations were somehow 
changed by it, and that I should henceforth be otherwise 
than I had been. I was so oppressed with ' the exceeding 
weight of glory,' that I drew my breath with difficulty. 
As 1 came out of the building, the street sounds hurt me 
with their harshness. The sight of ragged boys and unfor- 
tunate coachmen jarred mors than ever on my feelings. I 
wanted that the angels that had ministered to my spirit, 
should attend theirs also. It seemed to me that such 
music should bring all the world into the harmonious 
beauty of divine order. I passed by my earthly home, 
and knew it not. My spirit seemed to be floating through 
infinite space. The next dav I felt like a person who had 



140 MUSIC A UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE. 

been in a trance, seen heaven opened, and then returned to 
earth again." 

Says another writer of a great musician : " His soul is 
but a harp, which an infinite breath modulates ; his senses 
are but strings, which weave the passing air into rythm and 
cadence." Wonderful, indeed, is the power of music ; and 
all are more or less the subjects of its mysterious charms. 
And this leads me to remark, that music is universal. 

Different nations have different habits, customs, man- 
ners, modes of expression, and different words and lan- 
guages to convey their thoughts and feelings. But music 
is felt alike by them all. A stirring strain will touch the 
well-strung souls of every nation alike. All will dance to 
a note of joy ; all will weep to one of sadness. A lofty 
strain will bear all to heaven, a jarring discord sink them 
back to earth. The same masters have made the same 
music in Norway, Germany, Italy, France, England, 
America, and all have bowed before it like reeds before 
the blast. A beautiful proof is this of the kindred nature 
of all souls, of the existence of a mysterious link of spirit- 
ual union, that binds them all together. And the beauty 
of this proof is hightened when we remember that music 
is the voice of love, and is closely allied to the infinite. 
Love speaks in tones of music. Love breaths musical 
airs. Love delights to pour itself out in song. The lover 
of God chants his praises in strains of lofty music. 
Witness the sweet singer of Israel, the prophets, the songs 
of angels, the aspirations breathed in music of every de- 
vout soul. The lover of freedom speaks his love in song. 



THE HARMONY OF THE UNIVERSE. 141 

The lover of beauty sings its praises. The lover of hu- 
manity softly breathes his love-notes in strains of sweetest 
music. Then how beautiful is its universality ! The love 
of which it is the voice is equally universal. All souls 
have love within them. Love, or Good, is the inmost es- 
sence of all things. It is the all-pervading soul of the 
universe. Its voice is music. It is breathed in the harmo- 
ny of the spheres, in the anthem of universal nature. The 
winds, the seas, the lightnings, the forests, the mountains, 
the beasts, the birds, the insects, the little brooks, and, 
most of all, the noblest work of God on earth, give utters 
ance to its voice, the voice of love, the music of creation. 
I have fancied sometimes that I could perceive the great 
Being of Love sitting in the mid-heavens, clothed in light, 
with the rainbow-arch above His throne, listening with in- 
finite pleasure to the anthem of creation in its infinite 
swells and falls, catching the silver notes of the least little 
organist, and delighting His ear with the full chorus of 
boundless harmony which His own diffusive love had. 
raised throughout the infinitude of His works. 

It has been beautifully said that, " Music is the voice of 
God, and poetry His language." God's love is infinite, 
and so, in its highest achievements, music expresses to us 
much of the infinite. It seems to bear an affinity to God. 
Says Mrs. Childs, of the impression made on her mind by 
a musical performance: "It expressed to me more of the 
infinite than I ever saw, or heard, or dreamed of, in the 
realms of nature, art, or imagination." And again she 
says: " Music is the soprano, the feminine principle, the 



142 music is tup: voice of love. 

heart of the universe. Because it is the voice of Love, 
because it is the highest type, and aggregate expression of 
passional attraction, therefore it is infinite ; therefore it per- 
vades all space, and transcends all being, like a divine 
influx. What the tone is to the word, what expression is 
to the form, what affection is to thought, what the heart is 
to the head, what intuition is to argument, what insight is 
to policy, what religion is to philosophy, what holiness is 
to heroism, what moral influence is to power, what woman 
is to man, is music to the universe. Flexile, graceful, and 
free, it pervades all things, and is limited by none. It is 
not poetry, but it is the soul of poetry ; it is not mathe- 
matics, but it is in numbers, like harmonious proportions 
in cast iron ; it is not in painting, but it shines through 
colors, and gives them their tone ; . . it is not in architect- 
ure, but the stones take their places in harmony with its 
voice, and stand in ' petrified music' " In the words of 
Bettina : " Every art is the body of music, which is the 
soul of every art ; and so is music to the soul of love, 
which also answers not for its workings ; for it is the con- 
tact of divine with human." 

Besides music being powerful, universal, the voice of 
love, and the type of the infinite, it is venerable for its age. 
As it is the voice of God's love, we know not but it is 
coexistent with His being. It is reasonable to suppose 
that its swelling numbers have rolled and made heaven 
vocal with its strains of praise since creation dawned. But 
the first account of it on record was at the laying of the 
foundations of the earth, when the " morning stars " de- 



MUSIC THE VOICE OF WORSHIP. Ii3 

lighted with the promise of a new planet, 4: sang together, 
and all the sons of God shouted for joy." As soon as the 
earth was made, its rocky spires thrown up, its forest harps 
strung, its ocean organs tuned, it raised its everlasting 
anthem to swell the chorus of the skies. 

All God's devout children of the human kind have raised 
songs of praise to their Maker. His men inspired have 
loved to dedicate their powers, to string the harp and tune 
the psalter to the voice of sacred song. Music being the 
voice of God and being universal, we see that nature invites, 
in the language of inspiration : " Come, let us sing unto 
the tord." Music being the voice of love, how appropri- 
ate a vehicle is it to bear up to the great home of ever- 
lasting love the incense of human affections. Sing unto 
the Lord, because He is. Love. Sing to Him, because 
music is the voice of love. Sing to Him, because He 
loves the songs of devout hearts. Sing unto Him, because 
a sacred song melts the heart in love to Him. Sing unto 
Him, because music elevates the soul to heaven. Sing to 
Him, because music is the type of the infinite, and enlarges 
the sphere of our thoughts and aspirations. Sing unto 
Him, because music is the link unseen that binds all hearts 
in one, and all with God. Sing unto Him, because singing 
is the employment of angels, and will be ours when angel 
crowns we wear. Come, let us sing unto the Lord, is the 
voice of reason, of love, of revelation, and nature. Let 
us sing now, and make earth vocal with His praises ; sing 
while in this life, that we may be the better prepared when 
we go hence, to sing — 



144 CULTIVATION OF MUSIC. 

" That undisturbed song of pure consent, 
Aye sung around the sapphire-colored throne, 
To Him that sits thereon : 

Where the bright seraphim in burning row 
Their loud uplifted angel trumpets blow ; 
And the cherubic hosts, in thousand choirs, 
Touch their celestial harps of golden wires." 

The human voice is the most perfect musical instrument 
ever made ; and well it might be, for it had the most skill- 
ful Maker. That voice should be cultivated to sing the 
tones of love to man and to God. Around the fireside, in 
the social circle, it should sing the voice of love, and^at the 
altar of God it should pour forth melodious praise. 

Who does not know the softening power of music, es- 
pecially the music of the human voice? It is like the 
angel- whisperings of kind words in the hour of trouble. 
Who can be angry when the voice of love speaks in song ? 
Who hears the harsh voice of selfishness, and brutalizing 
passion, when music gathers up her pearly love-notes, to 
salute the ear with a stray song of paradise % Sing to the 
wicked man, sing to the disconsolate, sing to the sufferer, 
ilng to the old, and sing to children, for music will inspire 
them all. 

To all youth we would say, cultivate well the powers of 
music in your souls, for amply will you be repaid. God 
has given you the talent for music; shall it be useless 
within you for want of use % Shall the gem never be bur- 
nished % Shall you never present it shining to God, its 



MUSIC A SPERITUALIZER. 145 

giver, in a song of praise and worship. It is due to Him 
that it should be cultivated. It should be taught to breathe 
the soul-stirring harmonies of the sanctuary in the ear of 
Almighty Love. How sweet does it make the worship of 
God, to have the reverent emotions poured out in song ! 
How early should children be taught to sing ; for what is 
sweeter than the songs of innocent childhood, so refining, 
so refreshing, so suggestive of heaven 1 Music sweetens 
the cup of bitterness, softens the hand of want, lightens the 
burdens of life, makes the heart courageous, and the soul 
cheerfully devout. Into the soul of childhood and youth it 
pours a tide of redeeming influence. Its first and direct 
effect is to mentalize the musical performer ; not to give 
him knowledge, nor more wisdom in the practical, business 
affairs of life, but to stir his mental being to activity, to 
awaken strong emotions, to move among the powers within 
as a common electrifier, touching here with tenderness, 
there with energy, now with holy aspiration, and anon with 
the inspiring thrill of beauty. It breathes like a miracle 
of inspiration through the soul, to elevate, refine, and spirit- 
ualize. No lethargy can exist in the soul that is pouring 
forth a tide of music numbers. Its very recesses are all 
astir. Every thing within becomes active ; the perceptions 
acute, the affections warm, the moral sensibilities quick 
and sensitive. When we think how much the world wants 
awakening, we can think of no power better calculated to 
do it than that which dwells in the mysterious melodies of 
music. Let every body become musicians, and surely they 
would become living souls. The dead would be raised ; 

7 



146 PROSTITUTION OF MUSIC. 

the stupid vitalized, and the enervate, mindless creature of 
ennui stirred into a breathing, active, emotional existence. 

But it not only gives an additional warmth, fervor, and 
vigor to the powers within ; it gives refinement. It is op- 
posed to the gross, the low, and the vulgar. Music never 
suggests vulgarity and baseness, never tends to the coarse 
and low. To the shame of humanity be it said, that it has 
been prostituted to administer to passions base and feelings 
vile. And so has religion, and reason, and love. But not 
more are these directly opposed to the vile and coarse than 
is music. When music numbers take hold of the mental 
man with their powerful and vigorous sway, and raise it to 
that point of activity and emotional fervor scarcely ever 
attained by any other means, the whole tendency is to the 
pure, the refined, and the perfect. It is true the increased 
and cultivated sensibility of musical performers makes 
them so alive to discord, opposition, harshness, that at times 
they become much like that sensitive plant called " touch- 
me-not," but this is rather the result of outward inhar- 
mony than of inward tendency to irritability. The outward 
w^orld is not in harmony with their inward world. It is too 
gross and rough, too discordant and perplexing. 

It must be expected that the sensibility which music cul- 
tivates will extend to the passional as well as the moral 
nature of man ; and will at times make anger more acute 
as well as love. It gives an increased activity to the whole 
being. And this would show the importance of cultivating 
all the mental powers in harmony with the musical talent, 
Much as I prize the influences of music, holy and enrap- 



MUSIC AN ESSENTIAL OF EDUCATION. 147 

turing as I believ© them to be, I would not press its claims 
beyond its proper limits. Harmony of mental develop- 
ment should be the grand object of life. The real and all- 
glorious influences of music are known and felt only when 
the whole mind is truly and properly cultivated. Then its 
charm is perfect ; then its heaven is created. Music should 
be an essential part of education. It should be cultivated 
with numbers, with science, with literature, and poetry ; 
for it is intimately blended with all these, is the spiritual 
expression of them all. It should begin ere words are 
lisped by the infant tongue, and be continued through the 
whole educational course, yea, through life. On account of 
its mentalizing tendency, it assists rather than retards the 
educational progress. It renders more active all the men- 
tal powers ; so that the whole educational work is assisted 
by the vitalizing power of the musical faculties. An ed- 
ucation can be acquired quicker and more effectually with, 
than without, the cultivation of the musical talent. The 
time given to that augments as rapidly as time spent in 
any other way the strength of the mental powers, while it 
relaxes, unbends, and thus rests and strengthens them, thus 
giving more time to the real work of education. Then let 
all youth be wise, and educate their talents for heavenly 
music. 



LECTURE X. 

CHASTITY OF LANGUAGE. 

A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver." — Proverbs. 

Mind, the fountain of Happiness and Misery — Creation, the Embodied Thought 
of God — Power and Dignity of Language— Charm of Pure Language — Groveling 
Minds employ Yulgar Words — Home, the place for Pure Speech — Home, the 
School of Life—Simplicity, the Beauty of Speech — By-words Yulgar — By-words 
Senseless— Profane Swearing— Evils of Profanity— Quaker Anecdote— Pure 
Dress of Thought. 

I introduce to the attention of my young friends in this 
lecture a subject which I deem of much importance, not 
only to their own happiness and well-being, but to their 
usefulness in the world. It is Chastity of Language. 
Some may think, at the first view, that this is hardly wor- 
thy of a whole lecture. But if not, what is worthy of 
careful instruction ? Language is the vehicle of thought 
and feeling. Thought and feeling are the spontaneous ex- 
pressions of the states of the mind. The state of the mind 
is the fountain of both happiness and misery. Thus, it is 
of great importance that the vehicle of the product of mind 
be chaste and pure, that the influence thus borne from 
mind to mind may be of the best possible kind. 

Remember, language is the vehicle of the product of 
mind, that immortal essence which produces thought, that 



CREATION, THB EMEODIED THOUGHT OF GOD. 149 

godlike principle of being which formed the rolling spheres, 
balanced the dancing universe, and rilled immensity with 
the splendid garniture of the skies. It is the vehicle of 
that even which is of itself immortal. For who can say 
that thought is not as imperishable as that which produces 
it ? What is the earth on which we dwell but a thought 
of God ! What are those eternal laws upon which rest all 
the order, magnificence, and reality of the heavens and the 
earth, but the thoughts of God I What are the stars that 
glitter above us; what are the suns that warm and illum- 
ine the boundless field of ethereal glory ; what are the bright 
intelligences that wing day and night the glorious airs of 
the celestial world; what are human creatures; what are 
minds in earth, but the thoughts of God I What is the 
universe in all its gorgeous grandeur, in all its star-built 
and sun-proved glory, but one great, magnificent, eternal 
thought of God? All this great assemblage ot the pro- 
- of the Eternal Mind, is the burden of human lan- 
guage. So the mightiest thoughts that have grown up in 
the creature's mind are the burden of language. All that 
the Homers. Miltons, Newtons, Addisons. Howard-. 
Channings of earth have thought, or felt, or seem or known, 
has been given to human language to bear to kindred minds 
down through the rush of coming ages. Even the rich 
treasures of Heavenly wisdom, the oracles of Divine love, 
have been intrusted to the keeping of this same carrier 
of all sacred things. An instrument thus important, thus 
glorious in ir> use^. thus grand in the results of its employ- 
ment, surely is not unworthy of our attention, not unwor- 



150 POWER AND DIGNITY OF LANGUAGE. 

thy of our study. If it has been and still is employed to 
convey the lively images that come into being within us 
from soul to soul, and thus form a link between intelli- 
gences, a telegrapher of the internal states, it is surely sec- 
ond only, as a subject of interest and study, to the thoughts 
or states of mind which it conveys. 

The capabilities and powers of the language which we 
speak are singularly great and wonderful. It is so flexible 
and yielding, so ready and susceptible, that it will take 
upon itself all the varieties of thought, and modes of feel 
ing, all the million states of mind and heart which are 
found in the existence of the human soul, and convey them 
to others with the utmost ease and simplicity of expression. 
It is true, it can not scale the highest hills of thought, nor 
sound the lowest depths of feeling. It can not tell the 
heart's deepest griefs nor most ecstatic joy, nor the mind's 
most exquisite conceptions of beauty or excellency. But 
sufficient is it for all the ordinary uses of humanity. It 
will convey our warm impulses of tenderness and love, 
our earnest sympathies for the sick and sorrowing, our 
glowing thoughts, and the live embers of our philanthropy. 
It will fill our minds with the radiant light, and our hearts 
with the sparkling joy of others. It will open to us treas- 
uries of wisdom, which are around us, and which have ac- 
cumulated in immense profusion, during the slow lapse of 
centuries in which it has been employed to chronicle the 
thoughts and deeds of men. It will bring around us the 
great and the good of all past ages for our friends and 
companions, and familiarize us with what they saw, and, 



CHARM OF PURE LANGUAGE. 151 

heard, and thought, and felt; and will inform us of the 
world as it is. Comprehending, then, the importance of 
the uses of language, we can not fail to see the importance 
of making it a perpetual study, especially when we remem- 
ber that it bears the same relation to ideas that beauty 
does to virtue, as expressed by an excellent writer : 
'•Beauty makes virtue appear more lovely still.' 5 So, 
chaste, refined, and appropriate language adds a new charm, 
even to the most beautiful thought. Ordinary thoughts, 
and the common conceptions of mankind, when clothed in 
the comely garb of pure, refined, and flowing words, become 
to us truly delightful, and awaken the sweet and tender 
sensibilities of our better natures. The conversation of a 
person of only common abilities and attainments is deeply 
pleasing, and often thrillingly interesting, when words 
joined in harmonious relations and expressive of real refine- 
ment and sensibility, are chosen as the symbols of thought 
and emotion. " Words fitly spoken are like apples of 
gold in pictures of silver." Charmingly delightful are 
they to the ear of a soul of refined and tender sensibilities. 
They fall upon it like notes of music, and thrill and trem- 
ble there in cadences which bring the soul into harmony 
with all beautiful things. 

We are always delighted with well-chosen and appro- 
priate language in a public address. The orators power 
lies much in the stirring music-notes of the language lie 
employs. He rings a thousand changes in words. If re- 
fined and elegant language is delightful in a public speaker, 
how much more so is it in private conversation, in the 



152 GROVELING MINDS EMPLOY VULGAR WORDS. 

social circle, in the converse of friend with friend, of lover 
with lover, of companion with companion ? It is in the 
private walks of life that the deepest, and strongest, and 
loveliest feelings of our natures are called into action. The 
relations of kindred, friends, and companions, in which are 
opened the heart's fountains of love and goodness, are in 
their most delightful aspects and offices concealed from 
the world. They are too tender and sweet to bear the 
gaze of a rude world. Here is it that the power, beauty 
and refinement of human language should be chiefly known 
and felt. Here it is that it should become the music-notes 
of the most refined affection. Here it is that the euphony 
of its flute-like power should thrill along the nerves of 
those whom love has united in its harp-strings' bonds. 

The home circle should be held too sacred to be polluted 
with the vulgarities of language which could have origin 
ated nowhere but in low and groveling minds. It should 
be dedicated to love and truth, to all that is tender in feel 
ing and noble and pare in thought, to the holiest com 
munions of soul with kindred soul. In order that such a 
communion may be fully enjoyed, it is requisite that Ian 
guage should there perform its most sacred office, even the 
office of transmitting unimpaired the most tender and 
sacred affections that glow in the human heart. 

Home ! how sweet, how tender the word ! How full of 
the associations that the heart loves ! How deeply inter- 
woven are the golden filaments of these associations with 
all the fibers of our affectionate natures, forming the glit- 
tering web of the heart's golden life ! Here are father, 



HOME, THE PLACE FOB PUKE SPEECH. 153 

mother, child, brother, sister, companions, all the heart 
loves — all that makes earth lovely, all that enriches the 
mind with faith and the soul with hope ! What language 
is meet for home use, to bear the messages of home feel 
ings, to be freighted with the diamond-treasures of home 
hearts % Should it be any other than the most refined and 
pure — any other than that breathing the sacred chastity 
of affection? 

If the dialect of angels could be used on earth, its fittest 
place would be in the home circle. The dialect of home 
should be such as would not stain an angel's tongue, nor 
fall harshly on an angel's ear. It should be made up of 
the words of wisdom, which are at once the glory of youth 
and the honor of age. If the members of every home would 
use that language, and that only which the true home-feel 
ing inspires, and which should be used in filling the true 
offices of that only earthly prototype of heaven, how dif 
ferent would be the appearance of the world. Methinks 
we should then have no need of angel visitors to teach us 
the ways of love and joy, of peace and glory ; for earth 
would have its own angels, and they would be scarcely in- 
ferior to those that dwell above. The language that would 
fall from their tongues would be indeed like " apples of 
gold in pictures of silver," and its influence upon other 
hearts would be like the breathings of angel melodies. 
Home is not only the proper place for the use of pure and 
refined language, but it is the place to learn that language 
which we wish to use abroad — that language which we 
would speak in the most refined circles of society, which 

7* 



154: HOME, THE SCHOOL OF LIFE. 

becomes the pure heart and chaste tongue. If we would 
speak an undefiled language away from home, in the pres- 
ence of the good, the pure, the learned, we must speak it 
at home. Home is the place where we form many, if not 
the most of our habits, both of action and speech. These 
habits we carry into the world. They cling to us like 
leeches. The vulgarities which we use "at home we shall 
use abroad. The coarse sayings, the low jests, the vulgar 
phrases, the grammatical blunders, all the lingual impro- 
prieties which go to form a part of our home conversation, 
will enter into our conversation at all times and in all 
places. If we permit vile bar-room sayings, street rigma- 
roles, and clownish vulgarisms, to stain our tongues at 
home, we shall be sure to have them blistered with these 
same idle, worse than idle things, in places where we shall 
be mortified to hear them fall from our own lips. How 
often in refined company have I seen the blush of shame 
tinge the cheeks of persons who at home, parrot-like, catch 
up all the vulgarisms that come out like vomit from the 
mouths of the polluted. Be assured, my young friends, 
that your language at home will give character and tone 
to your language abroad, and that your language in the 
most refined circles in which you may mingle will tell a 
sure tale of your home language. There is but one way 
to have a pure and chaste speech : that is, to cultivate at 
home the common use of those words which are like ap- 
ples of gold in pictures of silver. To be successful in 
this, you must first cultivate pure and refined thoughts and 
feelings, and then give the freest, easiest, and most agree- 



SIMPLICITY, THE BEAUTY OF SPEECH. 155 

able expression to them that your knowledge of words 
will permit. Strive always for the most pleasing and mu- 
sical forms of expressions ; those which are clear, unam- 
biguous, having no double meaning, and at the same time 
so appropriate and chaste that they would sound equally 
well in the refined drawing-room, the public lecture hall, 
or from the sacred desk. In doing this, you need not seek 
pompous words, great swelling phrases. These, as a gen- 
eral rule, are gross vulgarisms, as offensive to a refined 
taste as many of a coarser yet simpler nature. AYhat 
you want is a child-like simplicity of speech, united with a 
purity of word and diction which can not offend the ears of 
the most ardent lovers of literary refinement. Think not 
that I recommend any stiffness of speech, or a long, round 
set of phrases, which come and go like the tide, by an 
eternal law ; or that soft, silly, simpering affectedness, 
which is so strangely precise that each word must be 
pinched out, by rule, between the tongue and the lips. 
These are forms of vulgarity as truly detestable as any 
other. I would have language come from the tongue as 
easily and as purely as a song from the throat of a bird ; 
and have such language always chosen as shall dress in the 
most becoming manner the idea to be delivered. To se- 
cure this most desirable end, language must be our study, 
our practical every-day study. We should learn, by per- 
petual practice, to clothe our common ideas in a simple, 
easy dress, a purely chaste expression, and clothe them 
with a gracefulness of manner and an elegance of diction, 
which is proper for all places. Thus will our wards be 



156 BY-WORDS VULGAK. 

like apples of gold in pictures of silver. Some sound 
writer has said, that greatness consists not so much in 
doing extraordinary actions as in doing common actions in 
an extraordinary manner. So the beauty and power of 
language is not shown so much in clothing extraordinary 
ideas as in clothing common thoughts in an extraordinary 
manner. It is common thoughts with which we have the 
most to do, and these w r e should seek to express in the 
most appropriate and becoming manner. 

There are two particulars connected with this general 
subject, to which I wish to call especial attention. And I 
would that all could be so impressed with correct views 
upon these points that they shall never again be guilty of 
the errors to which I refer. The first is " by-words." 
Nothing is more common, especially among the young, 
than a frequent use of by-words. The habit is so confirmed 
with many young persons, that they can hardly speak a 
single sentence without interlarding it with some vulgar 
by-word, or some low, detestable Billingsgate saying, 
which is altogether destitute both of wit and sense. There 
are a thousand-and-one of these common by-words in fre- 
quent use, by those who really fancy they are quite 
refined in their language. Almost any lady, even, thinks 
she has a perfect right to inflict upon every body's ears a 
score or two of " law-me's" u my gracious' s" and " mercy on 
me's /" in a conversation of ten minutes, upon any subject. 
How many of these common-place ejaculations one has to 
hear every day, I know not ; but one thing I do know, 
their name is legion. They fprm a conspicuous part of 



BY- WORDS SENSELESS. 157 

our every-day language. They act something the part 
that a clown does at a circus — the fool. A fool is one des- 
titute of sense. And surely none will contend that there 
is any sense in those thousand good-for-nothing words and 
phrases to which I refer. We ought to strike the whole 
family of these lingual monstrosities from our vocabularies 
of usable words. They are incorrigible vulgarisms, black 
spots on the fair face of our beautiful English — filthy ver- 
min creeping among the clean garments of our thoughts. 
Why should we harbor them 1 What are they worth ? 
Of what use are they ? Whom do they benefit ] Who 
likes us any the better for using them 1 Who regards 
them as an evidence of either wit. sense, or refinement 1 
What ear do they please ? To what taste do they admin- 
ister ? What sense do they gratify 1 Young gentlemen, 
young ladies, do you think they add any thing to the dig- 
nity of your character, to the refinement of your manners, 
the intelligence of your minds, the virtue of your hearts, 
or your general standing among intelligent, worthy peo- 
ple] Can you give any respectable, any decent apology, 
any one of which you yourselves would not be ashamed 
for their use ? Then why use them ] Why not cut them 
out of your conversation, your language ; at once deter- 
mine to use none but chaste, pure, sensible words — words 
which express clearly and forcibly your thoughts, which 
are evidences of inward purity and a refined taste — even 
the beautiful words of wisdom, which are like " apples of 
gold in pictures of silver V 

There is still one other evil use of language to which I 



158 PROFANE SWEARING. 

wish to refer. I mean profane swearing. I should be glad 
to speak at length upon this point, but must content my 
self with brevity. Of all useless, worthless, totally good- 
for-nothing, and totally depraved habits, to which men 
bow in willing, voluntary bondage, the habit of profane 
swearing heads the list, and crowns the whole. For nearly 
all evil habits there can be some apology offered, some 
faint semblance of an excuse, some dim outline of the 
shadow of a reason, but for this I have never heard the 
first feeble attempt at a defense. This stands out a mon- 
strous deformity in human language, with none to plead 
for its life or tell a single merit due to its being. In the 
use of profane language, no idea is to be expressed, no ob- 
ject is to be attained, no end secured, no ear to be pleased, 
no taste to be gratified, no friendship to be obtained, no 
appetite to be administered to, no passion to be fed, no 
title to be acquired, no wealth to be earned, no possible 
good, either real or imagined, is had in view. " Of all sin- 
ners," says a wise man, " profane swearers serve the devil 
for less wages than any other class." Indeed, they serve 
for nothing and find themselves, run their own risks, and 
make their own repairs at that. Mean service indeed, it 
would seem, that was not worth the poor pay of some pre- 
tended good. No one will pretend that there is any wis- 
dom in profane swearing, for its words are not used to ex- 
press ideas or convey thoughts, or impart instruction, or 
inspire meditation. No such thing as this is thought of. 
They are not designed, when spoken, for any such offices. 
They are used, as are all by-words, in consequence of a 



EVILS OF PROFANITY. 159 

lack of wisdom, a want of good sense, to supply the place 
of ideas. They mean nothing. Surely no one would use 
them if he had ideas that he thought worth expressing, in 
their place. In consequence of a scarcity of ideas, these 
profane words are thrown in, to keejD up the sound and 
give the appearance of thoughts. They are wicked cheats, 
playing a game of deception, attempting to palm off a 
blustering sound for a substantial thought. Profanity is 
surely a good witness of a terrible dearth of wisdom, a 
frightful scarcity of ideas. Nor will any one pretend that 
there is any good in profanity ; for besides being an arrant 
cheat, it is an idle and w T icked use of the names of the 
greatest and best Being in the universe, the best and 
truest friend of every human creature. In this no one can 
believe there is any good. It breeds contempt for God, 
for His sacred name, for all holy things. It outrages the 
best and holiest feelings of our moral natures, our rev- 
erence for Deity, and our gratitude to the best friend we 
have, for unnumbered favors. It blunts the moral sensi- 
bilities, and confounds all our ideas of justice, goodness, 
and gratitude. It moreover offends the ears of our best 
earthly friends, God's holiest and loveliest men and 
women, and sends a thrill of anguish through their hearts. 
Surely no one can dream of there being good in it. It is 
a totally evil thing. Neither will any one contend that it 
is courteous, or civil, or polite, or gentlemanly. It is op- 
posed to all ideas of courtesy, to all rules of politeness, to 
all regulations for gentlemanly behavior. 

Every one would be most heartily ashamed of himself 



160 QUAKER ANECDOTE. 

should he, by an unlucky slip of the tongue, use profane 
words in a refined circle of acquaintances. 

The utter good-for-nothingness and silliness of profane 
swearing is well shown in the anecdote of a good Quaker. 
He had by some accident offended one of his neighbors. 
The neighbor, to vent his wrath, wrote him. a long and 
most terribly profane letter, being- about half made up of 
profane words. The good Quaker wrote him a very mild re- 
ply, of about the same length, in which he interspersed very 
thickly, m parenthesis, the phrase, " bottles and tongs" to 
supply the place of his neighbor's profanity. Now, if all 
profane swearers would do as the Quaker did, use the phrase 
" bottles and tongs," instead of profane words, they would 
see what a pigmy atom of sense is found in profane swear- 
ing, and what a terrible outrage of pure language it is. I 
can not dwell upon this subject. But, before I close, per- 
mit me to urge it upon every young man who has ever 
indulged in the wicked and worthless habit of profanity, or 
any thing that looked like it, to think seriously upon the 
subject, before he ever profanes the name of his God, or 
wounds the ears of his most refined friends, or defiles the 
purity of our beautiful English again. It is a sin against 
God, a sin against man, and a sin against the chastity of 
language. Let it be viewed in its proper light. Our 
thoughts we should prize too highly, and respect too deeply, 
to deform their dress with the deformity of profanity or 
any other vulgarism. We dress our bodies with good 
care and taste. We decorate and adorn them. Are not 
our thoughts of much more value? Whatever adorn- 



PURE DRESS OF THOUGHT. 161 

ments we may give our physical bodies, let us not fail to 
attire our thoughts in the most chaste and tasteful gar- 
ments, and adorn them with the most refined beauties of 
language. Let us adorn them with the beautiful words of 
chaste and refined sentiment, which are like apples of gold 
in pictures of silver. 



LECTURE XL 

CULTIVATION OF THE INTELLECT. 

General Adoration of Intellectual Capacity — Creative Power of Intellect — Uncul- 
tivated Intellect has few Pleasures — Cultivated Intellect Grasps the Universe — 
Geniuses of the Past — Mind Immortal — Mental Culture Progressive — Culture 
gives Power to do Good — Knowledge is Power — How shall the Poor be Educa- 
ted — Poverty a Mental Stimulant — The Will is the Way — Poverty a good School- 
master — Glory of Cultivated Intellect. 

From time immemorial intellectual endowments have 
been crowned with bays of honor. In all times and na- 
tions intellect has been the idol-god of the human race. 
Men have worshiped at its shrine with an Eastern idolatry. 
Men of great intellect have been regarded as demi-gods. 
The multitude have looked upon them with awe-struck 
wonder. An impression has been felt as of the presence 
of a grand and solemn agent of spiritual majesty and 
power. With cheerful and reverent hands the world has 
crowned intellect with its richest honors. Its pathway has 
been strewn with flowers ; its brow has worn the loftiest 
plume ; it has sat upon the proudest throne ; it has held 
the mightiest scepter of power. This general, universal 
adoration of intellect is proof at once, both of its transcend- 
ent worth and power. But evidences mightier than these 
are standing thick as stars in night's diadem all through the 



CREATIVE POWER OF INTELLECT. 163 

universe, proclaiming the worth and power of that which 
produces thought, and adapts ends to means. 

By intellect Divine came the earth, rolling her vast cir- 
cuit among the numberless hosts of the family of worlds, 
with all its rich and gorgeous furniture. By intellect came 
the glory-flashing magnificence of heaven, its blazing suns 
lit beyond suns that roam and shine through the measure- 
less spaces of immensity. By intellect human came the 
secondary creations that mark with the chiseled lines of 
thought and skill the career of man — the cultivated fields, 
the vine-clad hills, the mill-strewn vales, the love-lit homes, 
the village-decked plains, the city-girt continents, the 
steamer-covered streams, the wire-woven and iron-bound 
lands, and sail- wreathed oceans. By intellect came all the 
stirring, sublime, mystery- woven realities of the universe. 
Then is it not worth v of our attention 1 And though but 
a feeble spark be ours, should it not be cultivated'? 

But again. In our daily avocations, our chase for wealth, 
our ambitious struggles for honor, our journeyings for hap- 
piness, in the direction of our social and benevolent move- 
ments, the establishment of governments and their multi- 
form concomitants ; in the formation of our characters and 
the solution of our life-problems on the world's great theater 
of action, intellect is our guide, It is our "cloud by day 
and our pillar of fire by night," hung above our pathway, 
to lead us by its light. It is our sole dependence, to plan, 
design, direct, determine, and decide in and upon all ques- 
tions, actions, matters, and things that concern us as living, 
jentient, and accountable beings. In all things, from plant- 



164 UNCULTIVATED INTELLECT HAS FEW PLEASURES. 

ing a potato to evolving a philosophy, intellect is our 
guide. Its decisions are our law, its voice is our teacher, 
its authority is the supreme judgment to which we must 
bow. Then should it not claim our care, our most careful 
hand of cultivation'? 

Once more. Intellect uncultivated has but few pleasures, 
and those are low and gross. But the pleasures of culti- 
vated intellect are among the most refined and noble as 
well as the most ecstatic that enter into and form a part 
of human happiness. To the man of truly cultivated 
power of thought there are a thousand voices that speak 
the rich language of instruction and wisdom, to which the 
uncultivated ear is totally deaf. He passes not only all 
the common enjoyments of life, home, friends, the bounties 
and beauties of munificent nature, in a degree greatly ele- 
vated by his cultivation, but he holds within his hands the 
keys that unlock the grandest treasures of the universe, and 
give him permission to walk the heights of glory where 
angels tread. To him the sun pours down his glory- 
wreathed beams of warmth and life, laden with the rich 
instructions which science teaches of that glorious illumi- 
nator and governor of the solar system. Every ray is a 
dispatch from that gorgeous world of light, speaking of its 
opake body, its vast magnitude, its luminous atmosphere, 
its revolutions on its own axis, its mighty attractive powers, 
its distance from us, the mysterious and almost godlike in- 
fluence which it exerts upon our earth, the life and beauty 
it infuses into all things here, and all the rich and varied 
instruction gleaned by the penetrating mind of man from 



CULTIVATED INTELLECT GRASPS THE UNIVERSE. 165 

this sunsource of light. The stars bring to him intelligence 
from the regions they inhabit, and each constellation affords 
him historic information of those who have gazed upon its 
stellar beauty in centuries gone by. The comets come to 
him on rapid wings of light, with their banners streaming 
back, telling by their inconceivable velocities, of the 
measureless depths they have penetrated in the immensity 
of the Creator's realm. The moon pours down its floods 
of light, freighted with its burden of knowledge. The 
clouds come over him but to tell him the story of their 
vapor-wreaths and the mission they have to perform. The 
lightnings flash but to give him instructive joy. The thun- 
ders rattle but to make him music. The winds roar but 
to whistle in his ears the story of their lives and labors. 
The earthquake moans but to send a voice of instruction 
from below, and the volcano flashes up its flames, a great 
torchlight to read earth's ancient history by. Old ocean 
pronounces in his ears its solemn sermon of grandeur, and 
the plains and mountains send back their instructive re- 
sponses. The little flower beneath his feet opens its roseate 
volume to his admiring gaze ; the blade of grass translates 
its mystical language for his pleasure, and the delicate leaf 
breathes about him its silent words of wisdom. 

He finds instruction in the cattle upon the thousand hills, 
in the birds above him, and the fishes below him. He finds 
"books in running brooks, sermons in stones," and a voice 
in every thing bidding him to a great feast of intellectual 
pleasure. Yet more than this. It is his to be surrounded 
by the greatest and best minds which have reared their 



166 GENIUSES OF THE PAST. 

monumental piles upon the soil of intellect, as his compan 
ions. The blind old bard of Scio relates to him the story 
of his Grecian heroes. The immortal Tully speaks to him 
the words of fire and flame, of thought and power, which 
rang in Roman ears, and made his name the imperishable 
thing it is. Milton spreads before him the wings of hr 
lofty imagination. Shakspeare opens the human heart to 
his view. Byron makes a bonfire of human passions foi 
his delight. Melancthon and Luther tell him of the great 
Reformation. The northman, Swedenborg, takes the vail 
from the human soul and shows its spirituality ; while 
German Goethe and Schiller reveal its aesthetical powers. 
Bailey sketches for him, in words now of broken rock, and 
anon of flute-like melody, the strange mutations of human 
life. Hemans sings to him of love and faith, and all the 
great, and all the good, and all the wise gather around him 
to increase the sources of his pleasure. Now he may listen 
to the eloquence of a pious divine touching duty, heaven, 
and God, and anon trace the history of the church of 
Christ. Great is the joy of such a companionship. Most 
gratifying is such a communion of soul with the minds of 
the great and good. Rich, deep, and pure are the pleasures 
of cultivated intellect. Only a few of them have we enu- 
merated, and those in the most feeble manner. They can 
not well be told. They are to be felt. Is not, then, the 
cultivation of our intellects an object worthy of our atten 
tionl 

But another thought comes here, a great and glorious 
one, one that sparkles instruction, and we might almost 



MIND IMMORTAL. 167 

say works by inspiration, wherever it goes. It is that mind 
is immortal, and that all its real adornments of wisdom 
and knowledge are put on for an endless state of existence. 
The transcendent powers of thought which man possesses 
were not made for a day, but for eternity. They will live 
when all perishable things shall have passed away. They 
shall be blooming in youth when the sun and stars are 
hoary with age. They will live to witness the transforma- 
tion of all material forms, the wreck of matter, and the 
crush of worlds ; live to see the passing away of the old 
heavens and earth, and the establishment of new and more 
glorious ones. The treasures of memory locked in the 
archives of intellect, must be immortal. The thoughts 
which spring into being within us leave imperishable me- 
mentoes behind. Mind leaves this world, freighted with 
all its wealth, for the great ocean of endless life. The 
thought-pearls which we gather along the journey of life are 
treasures for eternity. The intellectual cultivation of earth 
is for heaven. Every mental improvement we make here 
is not only an improvement for time, but for eternity. The 
adornments of mind are our sources of pleasure hereafter 
as well as here, and increase our happiness in heaven as 
well as on earth. Then, I ask, emphatically, is not the in- 
tellect worthy of a life-long cultivation ? 

Still another thought claims a moment's attention. 

Intellectual cultivation is a progressive work. The 
powers of the mind unfold with their exertion. Each suc- 
cessive effort adds to its power. Every new thought 
gleaned from the voyage of life confers upon it a new 



168 MENTAL CULTURE PROGRESSIVE. 

strength. Every struggle for truth, every effort for a clearer 
light, every strife for a noble victory, every press against 
the barriers of life, or the adverse currents of earth, every 
resistance of error, every toil-earned discovery, every soul- 
rack and drop of brain-sweat adds something to the power, 
brilliancy, and treasury of the intellect. And as it pro- 
gresses in the great life before it, its capacities for higher 
attainments are augmented, its vision is made clearer, its 
perceptions more lucid, its reflections more just, its com- 
prehension more enlarged, its pleasures more deep and 
ecstatic, until it shall reach that point of intellectual gran- 
deur and power attained by angelic beings, until it shall 
comprehend the mighty thoughts that revolve in their 
minds, and feel the transcendently glorious pleasures which 
glow in their souls. The more rapid our intellectual cul- 
tivation, the sooner these sublime attainments will be re- 
alized, and the sooner we shall reach the high plains of 
celestial glory occupied by the children of light. Then 
most earnestly do I press the question, is not intellectual 
cultivation ah object worthy of our deepest consideration? 

Bear with me a little longer on this part of my subject, 
while I present a thought or two more. 

The cultivated intellect is a source of never-failing pleas- 
ure to its friends and companions. It is a mine of wealth 
sparkling with instruction. It has an attractive force, which 
draws around itself the minds of others, and delights them 
with its companionship. Its words are rich with the magic 
power of thought. It charms the ear with its varied har- 
mony of rich and glowing language. It ravishes the heart 



CULTURE GIVES POWER TO DO GOOD. 169 

with its recitals of the poetry of passion and love. It fires 
the imagination with the flights of its fancy, and the gor- 
geous drapery of its figures. It captivates the judgment 
by the justness of its opinions, the cogency of its reason, 
and the comprehensiveness of its views. Who that has 
ever enjoyed the companionship of a truly cultivated intel- 
lect, knows not its power to please and instruct the mind, 
to captivate and ravish the heart ? How full of interest is 
the conversation of a truly intelligent man or woman ! 
How eagerly do we seek the company of such, and how 
long do we enjoy it before we tire ! Great are the charms 
which the cultivated intellect has for its companions. Then 
shall we not cultivate ours % 

Again, the cultivation of intellect increases our abilities 
to do good. Is a nation oppressed with tyranny % Are 
unjust laws grinding the face of the poor? Are existing 
institutions opposed to the well-being of the masses of the 
people % Are old errors blinding the public mind and vail- 
ing the soul of humanity from the light of truth % Is ig- 
norance palsying human energies and dwarfing human 
powers ? Is the whirlpool of intemperance swallowing up 
its thousands % Is war and slavery cursing their millions ? 
Cultivated intellect must apply the Archimedean lever of 
reform to these ruinous evils, or they can never be removed. 
Shall we then cultivate ours 1 

Is the world to be reformed, improvements to be made, 
laws to be enacted, governments to be framed, institutions 
to be established, discoveries made, education carried to 
the masses, charity applied to the unfortunate, justice ad- 

8 



170 KNOWLEDGE IS POWER. 

ministered, diseases cured, science taught, religion proclaim- 
ed to a sinful world ? Cultivated intellect must perform 
these Herculean tasks. 

Once more. In the ordinary avocations of life, in at- 
tempting to live by the Golden Rule, in practicing the re- 
ligion of Christ, in striving to realize in our lives the great 
idea of the common brotherhood, in living for our families, 
our country, and our race, we are greatly assisted by the 
cultivation of our intellectual powers. I would that my 
young readers could realize the importance of this thought. 
Our ability to do good is in proportion to the degree of 
cultivation our minds have received, other things being 
equal. This is the thought. It is an important one. If 
it could be realized by the young, it is certain that they 
would put forth their noblest efforts for the cultivation of 
their mental powers. If they really desire the good of 
their fellows, if they wish to see the world reformed of its 
evils, if they would be instruments in the hands of God of 
blessing the human kind, they can not fail to endeavor to 
increase their ability to engage successfully in every good 
work. If they would have power for righteousness-sake 
over their fellows, they must acquire it by the cultivation 
of their intellects. There is a power in a single cultivated 
mind which a thousand ignorant ones can never wield. It 
is a common saying, that " knowledge is power," but it is 
not so much knowledge, as it is the cultivation which the 
obtaining of that knowledge has conferred upon the mind 
that possesses it. There is a hidden, but great power, in 
every cultivated mind. It is ready to plan, and fruitful in 



HOW SHALL THE POOR BE EDUCATED? 171 

expedients to execute. Whoever then would wield an in 
fluence over his fellows, let him cultivate his mind. 

But above all these considerations, there is still another 
higher, stronger, holier. Intellect is the gift of God, and 
in respect for Him should be cultivated with the greatest 
assiduity. He gave it, with the command to water, prune 
and cultivate it. " Bury not thy talent in the earth," is 
His impressive mandate. Who will obey His will ? Who 
will show that they honor the name of their Father by 
sowing in the soil of the intellect the seeds of wisdom and 
truth, and cultivating them with industrious care? 

But here some one may ask, How shall I cultivate my 
intellect ? I am poor, and have not the means to procure 
an education. Have not the means ! Has poverty robbed 
you of a single intellectual power? Has it not sharpened 
them all? Has it shut you out from nature, from truth, 
and from God ? Has it taken away from you the glorious 
objects of thought which the Creator has spread around 
you in grand and solemn profusion ? Has it broken the 
silken eord that binds you to your fellows? Has it shut 
out the brilliant creations of their minds from yours ? 
Has it palsied your senses ? Has it forbid that you should 
gaze into the solemn, yet sparkling depths of your own 
soul and read there the treasures of wisdom which God has 
written, never to be erased ? Has it sealed the book of 
your own heart ? Nay, verily. All that is great, good, 
beautiful, sublime and glorious, is yet yours. You are 
robbed of nothing. You are yet God's freeborn child, with 
the boundless riches of your paternal inheritance about 



172 POVERTY A MENTAL STIMULANT. 

you. Your powers are unimpaired. They are beautiful 
and strong as ever. Why then not cultivate them 1 Why 
does poverty prevent ? Money will not buy you study, 
or thought, or mental strength. You can think, reason, 
meditate, without money. You can exercise all your facul- 
ties upon all the objects around you, without money. 
Wealth will not convert a dunce into a genius. Gold will 
not store the mind with wisdom ; more likely it will fill it 
with folly. It may decorate your body, but it can not 
adorn your soul. Strange thought, that money will culti- 
vate your intellect. You are mad to entertain a thought 
so absurd. The poorer you are, the easier it is for you to 
cultivate your mind. You have more and greater stimu- 
lants to action, and fewer inducements to idleness and folly. 
It is hard for the rich youth to cultivate his mind or heart. 
Much more favorable and preferable are the opportunities 
of the poor. From among the poor have come the great 
majority of the world's greatest and best characters. 

But you say now, that you have not time. Not time 
to think! How can you help thinking? Not time to 
study ! How can you avoid studying ? Your mind is 
active, ever active, ever thinking, ever studying. All you 
have to do is to direct it to proper objects, and in proper 
channels, and it will cultivate itself. You have time 
enough for nonsense, idleness, waste, gossip, foolery, but 
not time enough to cultivate your mind. Whoever lives 
to thirty years of age without cultivating his mind, is guilty 
of an enormous waste of time. The truth is, there is 
nothing to prevent but a will. Whoever forms a resolute 



THE WILL IS THE WAT. 173 

determination to cultivate his mind will find nothing in his 
way. If he finds barriers, they will only make him stronger 
in surmounting them. Every thing will administer to his 
progress in the great work. Aids will come from every 
quarter. Teachers will gather around him in numberless 
hosts. The air will breathe notes of instruction, and run- 
ning brooks give him lessons of w r isdom. The bee, the 
worm, the bird, the rock, the cloud, the ocean, the heavens 
above him, will read him lectures on science. Light and 
darkness, heat and cold, every thing in nature, life the hu- 
man soul, will gather around him with a voice of instruc- 
tion, as soon as he determines to be instructed. He can 
walk a lifetime amid all these things, and get no instruc- 
tion. But as soon as he begins to look for it, it begins to 
come. The great Audubon spent half his life in the forests 
looking at the birds. One great man spent the most of 
his life studying spiders. Others have studied among 
snakes, lizards, bugs, and worms, and have found infinite 
delight in their pursuits. Some have studied the stars, 
others the flowers, and others the rocks. Learn this truth, 
young man and woman: " The will is the loay." Form 
that, and the gardens of your minds will be thoroughly 
cultivated. It is not necessary that a fortune shall be spent 
to afford you the opportunities of schools and colleges. 
These are invaluable aids. But life, the world, may be- 
come one great school, and every thing therein a teacher. 
The mind may be cultivated without schools, thoroughly, 
deeply cultivated without them. 
Moreover, any young man or woman, with ordinary health 



174 POVERTY A GOOD SCHOOLMASTER. 

and powers of mind, can obtain with his or her exertions 
all the advantages afforded in the most excellent schools 
of our day. The heart to do will afford the needed means. 
Let them dispense with superfluities both in dress and 
living, eat and wear only what is necessary for health and 
comfort, and apply their earnings in attending school. Let 
them earn a few dollars, then spend it in this way ; then 
earn more, and use it in the same way ; and they will soon 
find themselves in the possession of cultivated minds. In 
the ordinary avocations of life the mind may be cultivated. 
In the very pursuit of the means to attend school the young 
may cultivate their minds. 

The youth w r ho believes it impossible for him to get an 
education, is deficient in courage or energy. The youth 
who will stay away from the feast of knowledge because 
he is poor, is a coward or a ninnv. Poverty is a good 
school to try powers. Experience has taught me this 
lesson. 

Look out upon the world, and see what a fearful waste 
of barren, desolate, lifeless intellect there is around us. It 
is awful to behold. Young, brave, noble, immortal minds 
are growing up in blank darkness. Their young powers 
are rusting within them. A fearful shadow hangs over 
them. Their mental blindness makes angels weep. The 
uncultivated wastes of their souls present a sad picture for 
a benevolent heart to behold. And, what makes it sadder, 
they are not aware of their own utter barrenness. They 
feel not their own palsy of mind. Shall it be always so ? 
Will not the youth of this generation improve upon the 



GLORY OF CULTIVATED INTELLECT. 175 

last? The age demands it. The promise of the future 
demands it. The hopes of the great aud good, the spirit 
of benevolence, humanity, and God demand it. Yes, and 
another demand comes pressing its claims upon us for it. 
It comes from the depths within. Our own souls demand 
it. Their happiness, their exaltation, their present and 
everlasting good, their standing in life and in the bright 
retinue of angels, demand a thorough and life-long cultiva- 
tion of the powers of their own minds. There is no de- 
scribing the power, majesty, and glory of a cultivated in- 
tellect. Human language has no powers for such an office. 
The dialect above alone can tell what is permitted us now 
only to conceive. 

Let us be wise, my youthful readers, and visit daily the 
treasure-caves of thought. Let us turn in to the chambers 
within us, and decorate them with the pictures of the men- 
tal brush and pencil. Our minds are our God-given in- 
heritance. Let us improve them well, that we may hear 
within us the applauding voice, " Well done, thou good 
and faithful servant." 



LECTURE XII. 

CULTIVATION OF THE MOEAL SENTIMENTS. 



Moral Sentiments, the Imperial Crown of the Human Soul— Moral Culture neces- 
sary — Immortality, the Glory of Man's Being — Alliance of Man with his 
Maker— Adversity Fortifies the Soul— Moral Force the Fruit of Trial— The 
Storms and Trials of Life— Moral Power Invulnerable— The Five Moral Jew- 
els — Veneration— Link between God and Man— Benevolence— Power and 
Scope of Benevolence— Conscientiousness— Hope— Fraternity of the Moral 
Affections— Faith, or Spiritual Light— Eesult of Moral Culture. 



I come in this lecture to speak of the imperial crown of 
the human soul, the moral capacities with which God has 
endowed it. In this crown are set five jewels, more beau- 
tiful than the stars, lovely in the sight of angels, and 
precious in the eye of God — love to God, love to man, 
the love of truth and right, hope, and spiritual perception. 
Viewed in his intellectual capacity, man is a being of vast 
and varied powers, rising up before us like a tall son of 
light, with a vision possessing at once the two extremes 
of optical perception ; with his microscopic power viewing 
the infinitesimal minutiae of the wonderful creation about 
him, and with his telescopic eye stretching away into the 
cerulean depths of the star-built universe, to revel amid its 
ceaseless wonders ; now examining the physiological struc- 
ture of an insect, or unfolding the life and history of the 



MORAL CULTURE NECESSARY. 177 

infusoria about it : now discovering a world, and reading 
the statute book of God concerning its governments ; and 
now. with a gigantic stretch of thought, taking in a sweep 
of myriad worlds. 

Viewed in his affectionate capacities, as a social being, 
he is interesting and amiable, loving with a strange and 
undefinable tenderness the objects related to him by kin- 
dred or congenial ties ; sacrificing ease, strength, health, 
time, life, all, upon the altar of his affections. But v! 
as a moral being, he rises infinitely higher, and appears 
related to angels and God. Xow the virtues take their 
places in his soul, and stand in shining ranks in the sun- 
light of duty. Goodness, charity, constancy, magnanimity, 
justice, adoration, hope, faith, are among the virtues of the 
moral man. These are the bright, rich Jruits that spring 
in generous abundance from man's moral powers. These 
are the rays emitted from the jewels set in the diadem of 
his soul. These are the flowers that bloom in this moral 
garden of the man within. If there is any beauty in thorn, 
any sanctity, any odor of heaven, any of the elixir of spir- 
itual life ; if they confer any peace upon his heart, any 
light upon life's pathway, any joy upon the being within, 
any glory upon the soul, they should be cultivated, culti- 
vated much, with care, with zeal, with deep and earnest 
devotion. 

In the moral nature of man are found the strongest evi- 
dences of his immortality, of the ever-increasing beatitudes 
of glory which its capacities fit him to attain, and which 
are revealed in the sacred Scriptures as the destiny de- 

8* 



178 IMMORTALITY, THE GLORY OF MAn's BEING. 

signed by God for His earthly children. This thought is a 
great and glorious one, and should not be lost. The idea 
of immortal existence, blessed with the progressive at- 
tainments most calculated to advance its happiness and 
dignify and adorn its being, is one that the moral nature 
of man has ever delighted to cherish. When we think of 
the moral man, as existing through all future ages, beyond 
the shores of time and the dominion of death, as surviving 
the earth and sky, as living when the magnificence of the 
material universe shall have faded away, as exempted 
from every error and imperfection of its present state of 
being, as clothed upon with a higher life and an angel's 
glory, as realizing the beatitudes of an immortal and glo- 
rified state, as elevated with the most lofty conceptions of 
the wide universe of being around it. designed to shed light 
along the line of its immortal destiny, and spread every- 
where the glory of God ; when we think of it, as rejoicing 
in the wisdom and power of an intellectual strength, which 
comprehends the loves, order, and harmony of spiritual 
being; the objects, and uses, and relations of the material 
universe, in developing the highest excellences of the 
soul ; as having an access to the minds of the wise and 
good of all times and nations, and enjoying their com- 
panionship, as an immortal flow of soul and feast of reason ; 
when we think of it as sanctioning innumerable friendships 
with beings of rich and varied attainments, of singular in- 
tellectual capacities, and a loftiness of virtue of which we 
can now have but the least possible conception ; as cherish- 
ing an affection for the great and good, whose names have 



ALLIANCE OF MAX WITH HIS MAKER. 179 

adorned the pages of history, and enjoying their society 
and lofty conversation ; as delighting in a universal love 
for the children of God, and exulting in the companionship 
with Christ, and an intercourse with God more familiar 
than the closest intimacy of earth has ever shadowed forth ; 
when we thus think of the corning and eternal life of man, 
in which his moral sentiments are to be his crowning 
glory ; in which they are to give him his chief dignity and 
importance as an immortal being, and which are to unite 
him with all glorified beings, and with the eternal throne 
of that Great Being who is clothed with all majesty and 
power, we can not but be awed into a deep and holy 
respect for this part of our common nature, and feel that 
no duty is so imperious and pressing as that which bids us 
cultivate the moral powers of our souls. In considering 
our duties, we are too apt to forget what manner of beings 
we are. We look through the eyes of time and sense. 
We permit our visions to be contracted by the boundaries 
of what is visible. We forget the greatness of our natures 
and the majesty of our moral powers. We forget that for 
just such beings as we are the earth was made, with all its 
splendid furniture ; the sky, with all its radiant worlds ; 
that for us the upper world has lavished its treasures; that 
for us the Son of God, the Lord of Life and Glory, has 
labored, bled, and died. We forget that we are allied to 
the greatest and best men and women that have ever 
lived, to angels, to Christ, and to God. True, we are sin- 
ful and comparatively degraded. Looked upon in his 
worst estate, in his debaucheries, crimes, and wars, man 



180 ADVERSITY FORTIFIES THE SOUL. 

would almost appear an incarnation of evil. But look a 
little closer, and it will be seen that even here the true 
majesty of his nature may be seen. For here will be seen 
struggles against temptations, efforts at resistance of evil, 
resolutions for high purposes, desires for a better life, and 
hopes of some good yet unattained, which speak of the 
soul's inborn capacities. Here, too, it will be found, are 
nourished some of earth's noblest virtues, as well as loftiest 
and purest spirits. Washington was made the great and 
pure man he was, as much by the crying wickedness of his 
times as by the native grandeur of his soul. The stern, 
wicked rigors of Europe's penal code developed the vir- 
tues that gave the world a Howard. As the strong oak is 
made mightier by the storms that heap against it, as the 
arm becomes stalwart and powerful by repeated strokes, 
so do virtues grow in the soul, by the struggles at resist- 
ance, occasioned by the wickedness of the world. 

Patience^ that lovely, serene, summer-heaven virtue, 
which imparts to its possessor the mien and sweetness of 
an angel, is born and nourished amid trials, perplexities, 
and spirit-struggles. Resignation is the fruit of sorrow. 
Faith is the flower of need. Mercy is the angel form that 
sin reveals, to sweeten its bitterness and melt away its 
hardness. Moral courage and force are reared amid 
temptation and the besetments of evil ; so that man, even 
in his sins, exhibits the moral grandeur of his soul, and 
shows us not only the necessity but the importance 
and worth of moral cultivation. If we really felt the 
worth of our own powers, if we appreciated the beings 



MORAL FORCE THE FRUIT OF TRIAL. 181 

we call ourselves, far otherwise than they are would "be 
our lives. 

If we comprehended the progressive developments of 
virtue and spiritual excellence which we are capable of 
attaining, the moral power which we may inspire within 
ourselves, we should be far more sensible than we are of 
the duties which we owe the moral man. 

The great end to be attained in the cultivation of the 
moral powers, is moral force, spiritual energy of soul, to 
be and do what to us is most desirable for a high, immor- 
tal, moral, and accountable being. As we are, we fail to 
please ourselves ; we fall below our own standard ; we 
yield to temptations, when we desire not so to do ; we are 
unguarded at times, when we have need of being strong ; 
we often find our citadel exposed, when we feel no power 
to defend it. In these emergencies, to which all moral 
beings in the earth find themselves driven, we have need 
of an inward strength, a moral power of soul, which will 
enable us to resist the encroachments of evil. There are 
times in the lives of us all, when the soul shrinks back in 
weakness and dismay, before the burdens laid before it to 
bear. It looks, in heart-sickness and despair, upon the 
cross it must take up. When friends desert us; when 
scandal points her envenomed darts at the reputation we 
have earned in struggles and hopes; when fortunes, ac- 
quired in the sweat and toil of years, take wings and flee 
away ; when the dearest and longest cherished hopes of 
the heart are crushed by the chill hand of disappointment ; 
when beloved ones, that live in our very souls, are snatched 



182 . THE STORMS AND TRIALS OF LIFE. 

from our embraces, and are borne off in the icy arms of 
death ; when any severe affliction or trial is laid upon us, 
we feel our inability to bear it ; we give way to despond- 
ency, we shrink back into the gloomy solitudes of despair, 
too weak to meet the solemn messenger of adversity face 
to face, too nerveless to stand up under our burdens, and 
give God thanks for our trials, intended to confer the 
strength of soul we need, and fit us for higher modes of 
spiritual life. Then it is that we feel our moral weakness ; 
then it is that the prayer for an inward, angelic energy 
of soul goes up in deep and solemn earnestness to God ; 
then it is that we are most dissatisfied with ourselves, and 
feel the necessity of higher moral attainments than we 
have yet acquired. We can not be prepared for these 
trials, which we must meet, without due attention to the 
cultivation of our moral powers. I would that my young 
friends could be made to realize the importance of this 
subject. Life is a stormy sea. They are yet in the har- 
bor of youth. The winds that rush across the mighty 
main sweep not against them ; the waves that roll in the 
broad sea break not over them. But the time will surely 
come when the storm-clouds will gather and the thunders 
rattle, when the sea will rock and the sails of life will be 
rent, when the heart will sink in despair and the soul cry 
out in wretchedness. It is for such seasons that we have 
need to be prepared ; it is in such times that we have 
need of elevated and cultivated moral powers. I know 
not that at such times they are of more value to us than in 
seasons of prosperity ; but then we feel their import- 



MOKAL POWER INVULNERABLE. 183 

ance more, and it is then that the beauty and grandeur 
of our moral attainments shed their holiest luster in the 
soul, and become to us as the rainbow after the storm. 
There is something in moral excellence so beautiful, so truly 
adorable, that all beings with a spark of moral perception 
fall down and worship before it. There is something in it 
so pure, so holy, so kindred with heaven, so nearly allied 
to God, that it inspires all moral beings with a feeling of 
its divinity. The man who is calm amid dangers, pure 
and holy amid temptations, firm when other hearts are 
quaking, honest when he has no watcher but his conscience 
and his God, who gives his best alms in secret, and 
breathes his intensest devotions in the closet of his own 
soul ; who obeys his convictions of right when he knows the 
world will denounce ; whose religious trust forsakes him 
never, and in whose breast there is a moral power, a voice, 
a Christ, which says to his soul in the midnight of the 
storm of adversity and affliction, " Peace, be still !" this 
man is one to whom all hearts bow in respect ; one whom 
all men delight to honor, and is truly the noblest work of 
God. It is this moral power that we ought to strive to 
attain. We ought to be capable of forming resolute de- 
terminations to good, and living by these resolutions, as 
irrevocable rules of life. Nothing else so elevates and 
honors the young as the possession of such moral energies. 
No other adornment is half so beautiful, no other crown 
is half so honorable and bright. It rests on the brow of 
youth like a rainbow on the front of a cloud, and gives 
promise of a glorious life. Then let all youth strive for 



184 THE FIVE MOEAL JEWELS. 

this coronal of glory, that the fruits of honor, peace, and 
spiritual life, may grow abundantly in their souls. 

But I remarked in the outset of this discourse that there 
were five jewels set in this crown, to blend their radiance 
in one, to illuminate the pathway of life. It is proper that 
I should speak briefly of these. And, first and brightest 
of all, is Veneration, that moral link that binds man most 
closely with his God ; that spiritual garden, where the 
creature walks in sweet companionship with his Maker ; 
that feeling which adores, worships, loves the Divine 
Being, and which clings to Him with a holy, a devout, and 
reverential affection. This is the central, all-radiant sun- 
jewel, set in the crown of the soul. Its light is pure, 
heavenly, tranquilizing, and spiritualizing. The sentiment 
of veneration, of worship, of love to the Divine Being, is 
the highest, the holiest, noblest, and most truly sublime, 
that man is capable of cherishing. It has for its object the 
perfection of the Godhead. It fixes its regards upon the 
immortal glories of the great Father of lights. It binds 
itself to a Being fitted, as no other being is, to impart to 
the soul the highest moral grandeur that created beings 
can attain. It communes with the omnipotent spirit of 
love, which transfuses its energies throughout the wide 
creation. It is the upper window of the soul which opens 
into the clear, radiant light of God's eternal home. It is 
the ladder of Jacob, on which angels ascend and descend 
in intimate intercourse between the soul and its God, It 
is an affection, a love as positive, as real, as warm, as im- 
perative in its demands for activity, as any implanted in 



VENERATION. 185 

our natures. It is the grandest and noblest affection of the 
soul, because it fixes its regards upon the sublimest and 
holiest object in the universe. And its influence in every 
department of the mind is more salutary and holy than 
any other, because of the strength of the feeling and the 
nature of the Being upon which its adoration is fixed. As 
God is holier, lovelier than any other being, the affection 
for Him is more excellent in its influence upon the mind 
than any other. No mind can be perfect, no other affec- 
tion can rise to its highest degree of perfection, no faculty 
to its most exalted state, without the sanctifying power of 
this sentiment. If we would perfect our natures, if we 
would exalt our affections, if we would ennoble our souls, 
if we would reach the acme of true human greatness, we 
must give to the sentiment of veneration its full and per- 
fect influence in our minds. It is the basis of religion ; it 
is the religious feeling. It is opposed to all evil, opposed 
to the undue exercise of any and every faculty. Its will 
is the will of God, so far as it knows the divine desire. 
It is opposed to all things which militate against the laws 
and precepts of the Most High. It loves obedience to 
God. It delights in dependence upon Him. It sees His 
hand in every created thing. It feels Him everywhere, 
and rejoices in the feeling. It offers praise and thanks- 
giving. It lifts itself in prayer. It bows itself in worship. 
It venerates God and all things kindred with Him. It 
loves holiness, loves purity in thought and life ; loves 
devotedness to truth and right ; loves sincerity, sanctity 
of spirit; loves the highest virtues; loves goodness, hu- 



186 LINK BETWEEN GOD AND MAN. 

mility, meekness, love. In fine, it loves all things upon 
which God smiles. It should be one of the primary and 
principal objects of all persons, and especially of the 
young, to cultivate this affection ; to direct its energies to 
the one living and true God ; to inspire it with all possible 
power ; to enkindle all its holy fires ; to spread its sancti- 
fying charm through all the faculties of the soul. Its 
natural language is praise and prayer. It delights to make 
known its love to the one object of its regard. In this 
respect it is like any other affection. All affection is com- 
municative, and delights, above every thing else, to make 
itself known to the object on which it fixes its attention. 
It delights in praises of that object, in expressions of its 
respect and attachment. It never wearies in imparting 
itself, in making known the depth and strength of the fires 
within. Hence, praise and prayer is the natural language 
of veneration. These inspire it with power and activity. 
These enkindle its fires. These give it cultivation. Re- 
ligious worship augments its activities. Sanctuary exer- 
cises awaken its powers. Religious associations give 
permanency to its feelings. Hence, public and private 
worship, religious meetings and exercises of all kinds, are 
profitable for the cultivation of this, the highest faculty of 
the human soul. All religious ceremonies and exercises 
were established, and are supported, by this sentiment. 
They are the visible expression of its office and power. 
Their atmosphere is the element in which it delights to 
live. So that we see that religion, worship, praise, prayer, 
devotion, are as natural as they are revealed. All this is 



BENEVOLENCE. 187 

the voice of this sentiment, speaking out its own nature, 
and reminding us of its great Author. 

I have not time to speak more upon this faculty, which 
is the crowning glory of the human mind. But permit me 
to urge its cultivation upon my young friends, as one of 
the most sacred duties of life. Neglect it not. Neglect 
not the sanctuary. Neglect not religious reading, religious 
reflections, the formation of religious opinions, and the cul- 
tivation of a religious life. The highest beauties of your 
souls, the finishing touch of your characters, the sweetest 
charm of your lives will be given, by due attention to this, 
your first and last duty. 

The second jewel set in the mental coronal, is Benevo- 
lence^ the love of our fellow, the humane, sympathetic 
feeling — that w^hich seeks the good of others ; that which 
would pour out from the treasures of its munificence gifts 
of good things upon all. It is that feeling that gave the 
world a Howard, a Fenelon, a Fry. It is that feeling that 
leads on the reformer, which inspires the philanthropist, 
which blesses, and curses not. It is the good Samaritan 
of the heart. It is that which thinketh no evil, and is 
kind ; which hopeth all things, believeth all things, endureth 
all things. It is the angel of mercy which forgives seventy- 
and-seven times, and still is rich in the treasures of par- 
don. It visits the sick, smooths the pillow of the dying, 
drops a tear with the mourner, buries the dead, educates 
the orphan. It sets free the captive, unburdens the slave, 
instructs the ignorant, relieves the distressed, and preaches 
the gospel to the poor. Its look is like the face of an 



188 POWER AND SCOPE OF BENEVOLENCE. 

angel ; its words are more precious than rubies ; its 
voice is sweeter than honey ; its hand is softer than down ; 
its step as gentle as love. But I can not speak its praise. 
It needs no encomium ; it is its own praise ; its works 
are its plaudits. Whoever would be respected, whoever 
would be beloved, whoever would be useful, would be re 
membered with pleasure when life is over, must cherish 
this glorious feeling. Whoever would be truly happy, 
would feel the real charms of goodness, must cultivate 
this affection. It is a glorious affection, because of the 
number and extent of its objects. It is wide as the world 
of suffering, deep as the heart of sorrow, extensive as the 
wants of creation, and boundless as the kingdom of need. 
Its spirit is the messenger of peace, holding out to quarrel- 
ing, sinning, wrangling mortals, the white flag of truce. 
It is needed everywhere, in all times and places, in all 
trades, professions, callings, which men can pursue with 
pleasure, profit, or honor. The world has too little of it. 
It has been neglected. It should now be cultivated much, 
and long, and well. The peace, the happiness, the pros- 
perity of the world depends greatly upon it. Countries 
need it ; communities need it ; families need it ; indi- 
viduals need it. It is needed everywhere. Nothing gives 
a sweeter charm to youth than well-cultivated benevo- 
lence, an active charity, a disposition kind to all. Who 
can properly tell the power and sweetness of kindness ? 
Would you possess them, my young friends 1 Then cul- 
tivate the benevolent dispositions of your natures. Fail 
not to do it. Let a glorious activity of universal love 



CONSCIENTIOUSNESS. 189 

mark all your actions and feelings. Be kind, be good, be 
noble, be generous always. Let your words, your looks, 
your acts, breathe the spirit of love. 

The third jewel is Conscientiousness — the love of truth 
and right. It is the spring-source of integrity. It has 
been said that an honest man is the noblest work of God. 
It is the inspiration of this sentiment which makes him 
such, which crowns him with his real nobility. A great 
writer has said, that the two most beautiful things in the 
material and mental creations are the " starry heavens and 
the sentiment of duty in the soul." A sentiment most 
noble and true. If there is a being beneath the govern- 
ment of the Most High, who is worthy of the heart's 
esteem and high respect ; if there is one to whom my soul 
bows in willing reverence, and in whose presence I feel as 
though by the side of an angel ; who awes me while he 
secures my love, it is he who has a strong, a ruling sense 
of duty in his heart. It appears to me as though there is 
something of God in the feeling. It works a divine inspi- 
ration upon me. It fills my soul with heavenly images, 
and binds my heart to its possessor. It has a ravishing 
charm, and works as though by miracle upon my inner 
senses. This sense of duty in the heart is inspired by 
conscientiousness. The ultimate of the authority and 
office of this sentiment is to impart this sense of duty. 
The idea of obligation, responsibility, faithfulness to trusts, 
rectitude, justice, right, is conferred by this faculty. The 
voice of this sentiment is for right. It has but one law 
written in the heart of its being, and that is the rule of 



190 HOPE. 

right. It is a stern, noble representative in man of the 
attribute of justice in God. Jt is communicative, like 
other feelings and desires, imparting itself to others. It 
wishes to inspire its own glorious spirit everywhere, and 
make all hearts redolent of its light and the sanctity of 
heaven. It suffers in the presence of wrong, sorrows at 
injustice, weeps when any creature fails in duty. How 
much of sanctity, of holiness, of Godlike moral power this 
faculty, when strong, imparts to the human soul ! It is the 
citadel of moral force, and should be guarded well. Faith- 
fully should it be cultivated. Nothing should prevent a 
thorough and perpetual cultivation of this right arm of all 
morality. No luring bait of pleasure, no fancied inter- 
ests, should prevent an active exercise of this spiritual 
power. Be assured, my young friends, that your real 
pleasure and interest are in harmony with this sentiment. 
Then, injure it never; outrage it never; question never 
its teachings. Be true to its voice, heed its warnings, 
obey its dictates, walk by its councils, comply with the 
letter and spirit of its law. Come what may, frown who 
will, hearken to the voice of duty. It is God in the soul, 
speaking a language beautiful as the words of heaven. Oh, 
fail not to cultivate now and forever this love of truth and 
duty. 

The fourth jewel in the crown which God has placed 
upon His creature man, is Hope, It is that angel within, 
which whispers of triumph over evil, of the success of 
good, of the victory of truth, of the achievements of right. 
"It hopeth all things." It is a strong ingredient of 



FRATERNITY OF THE MORAL AFFECTIONS. 191 

courage. It is the friend of virtue. It is the prophet of 
"a good time coming." Its prophecy is " good tidings of 
great joy, which shall be unto all people.'' Its religion is 
full of glorious anticipation. It believes in a full redemp- 
tion. It is a general inspirer of all the moral feelings. 
To veneration it says, 4; All shall know the Lord, from the 
least unto the greatest." " The ends of the earth shal 1 
remember and turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of 
the earth shall worship before Him." " Every knee shall 
bow in spiritual homage, and every tongue shall confess 
him Lord and give Him praise, to His everlasting glory." 
" Every creature which is in heaven, on the earth, under the 
earth, in the sea, and all that are in them, shall say, Blessing, 
and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth 
upon the throne, and to the Lamb forever." To Benevolence 
it says, " God is love." " He is good unto all, and His ten- 
der mercies are over all His works." " He is good to the 
unthankful and the unkind." " He is gracious, 1 ong suffering, 
keeping mercy for thousands." " His love shall triumph 
over hatred." "His goodness shall overcome all evil." 
" He will bless, and curse not." " He will love His ene- 
mies, till their enmity of heart shall die, and they shall 
become His willing children." u He has prepared a feast 
of fat things for all people, of wines on the lees, well re- 
fined. He will wipe away tears from off all faces, and will 
take away the rebuke of His people from off all the earth." 
" Be kind and good to all, for there is a good time coming, 
when the lamb and the lion shall lie down together, and 
a little child shall lead them ; when spears shall be beaten 



192 FAITH OK SPIRITUAL LIGHT. 

into pruning-hooks, and swords into plow-shares, and men 
shall learn war no more." To Conscientiousness it says, 
" God will reward every man according to his works. He 
is truth, and lieth not. His truth shall run and be victo- 
rious. He will finish sin, make an end of transgression, 
and bring in everlasting righteousness." These are the 
religious sentiments of Hope, breathing everywhere the 
idea of victory. They are inspiring, ennobling, glorious. 
Its morality is equally inspiring, rich, and beneficent. It 
encourages all things good, great, noble. It whispers lib- 
erty to the slave, freedom to the captive, health to the 
sick, home to the wandering, friends to the forsaken, peace 
to the troubled, supplies to the needy, bread to the hungry, 
strength to the weak, rest to the weary, life to the dying. 
It has sunshine in its eye, encouragement on its tongue, 
and inspiration in its hand. Rich and glorious is hope, and 
faithfully should it be cultivated. Let its inspiring influ- 
ence be in the heart of every youth. It will give strength 
and courage. Let its cheerful words fall ever from his 
tongue, and his bright smile play ever on its countenance. 
Entertain well this nymph of goodness. Cultivate well 
this ever-shining flower of the spirit. It is the evergreen 
of life, that grows at the eastern gate of the soul's garden. 
The fifth jewel in the imperial crown is Faith, or Spir- 
itual Light. It is the true prophet of the soul, and ever | 
beholds a spiritual life, spiritual relations, labors, and joys 
Its office is to teach man that he is a spiritual being, that he 
nas an inward life enshrined in this material encasement, an 
immortal gem set now in an earthly casket. It assures man , 






RESULT OF MORAL CULTURE. 193 

that he lives not for this life alone, but for another superior 
to this, more glorious and real. It teaches that God is a 
spirit, and seeks such to worship Him. It dignifies humanity 
with immortality. It dwells ever upon an unseen world, 
announcing always that unseen realities are eternal. Virtue, 
knowledge, wisdom, mercy, love, righteousness, and wor- 
ship, are among its immortal, unseen realities. Lofty, 
dignified, transcendently glorious are its teachings, and 
equally so are its moral influences. It is a faculty of the 
human soul too much neglected. The things of time and 
sense, earth and sin, waste its energies and dim its sight. 
We are too carnal, too earthly. We cultivate not enough 
our spiritual senses. Let us be wise, O youth, and fail 
not to invigorate our spiritual parts. Life will smile in 
gladness, and eternity rejoice in glory, if we are faithful in 
this duty. Youth is the time to commence its cultivation. 
Youth's powers are pliant and easily trained. Let life be 
I our great school for the cultivation of all our moral pow- 
; ers. Upon the moral sentiments we can not bestow too 
. much attention. They are vastly important to our happi- 
I ness and eternal good. We can not honor them with too 
'I much attention. We can not be too watchful of their 
good. It should be the end and object of our life to dig- 
nify and adorn them. Our peace, our happiness, our 
standing in the scale of being, depends upon the cultiva- 
,' tion we give them. Let us, then, be faithful, and erect a 
1 noble temple of virtue, whose glittering pinnacles shall 
i the skies, and whose apartments shall be the fit 
I ling- places of angels. 

9 



LECTURE XIII 

CULTIVATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 

Man's Sympathy with the Sentient Universe — Affection, the Motive Force of the 
Soul — Power of the Affections — Charm of Eeciprocity — Omnipotence of Love — 
How to Cultivate the Affections — Moral Worth the Basis of enduring Love — 
Eeverence for Moral Purity — Eeason and Will, the Guide of Affection — Filial 
Affection — Trust only those who Love their Parents — Fraternal Affection — Love 
of Country — Universality of Home-Love — Patriotism — Philanthropy — Universal 
Brotherhood. 

Man is a being of singular and glorious affections. We 
read that " God is love." We read also that man is formed 
in the image of God ; in the similitude of his Maker. This 
is the voice of Revelation. Our own consciousness responds 
to its truthfulness. If God were not love, He could not 
have formed within us the perpetual fountains of affection 
which we feel sending forth their crystal tides, as though 
fed by a shoreless and fathomless ocean. If we were not 
formed in His image, we should not feel that dependence 
upon Him, and that interest in our fellow which is the glory 
of our being. Our affectionate consciousness is the most 
deep and thrillingly exquisite of any thing we feel or know. 
It is the first to develop itself in our natures, the longest 
to live, and the last to die. It is the most stirring emo- 
tions, the most potent energy of the human soul. It is both 
the basis and the dome of the temple of the spirit. We 



AFFECTION, THE MOTIVE FORCE OF THE SOUL. 195 

see it in the little child often breathing forth its spirit in 
sublime energy, causing it to sacrifice every little good, all 
its toys, its plays, its treasures, its joys, upon the shrine of 
young affection. We see it developing itself with each 
succeeding year, till in the season of youth it assumes a 
spiritual grandeur, which is singularly imposing and noble, 
after wielding its power over the most turbulent passions, 
and taming the most wayward and stormy energies that 
ever beat up their surges in the human soul. In middle 
age, its power is still more imperious and. general, forming 
the grand disideratum for which men live, inspiring their 
hopes, quickening their actions, and electrifying their ener- 
gies. In old age it is the sovereign ruler within ; in all 
cases, when it has been duly cultivated, becoming the mas- 
ter feeling, swaying the soul as does the breeze the harp of 
silken strings. On the shrine of affection are laid the most 
glorious sacrifices that humanity offers. Their name is 
Myriad legion. In the hovel among the mountains, in the 
palace on the plains, in the cot by the brook, in the frescoed 
seat of luxury,, in the abodes of the poor and in the man- 
sions of the rich, among the dwellers of the icy North, and 
those of the sunnv South, on the lone islands of the sea, 
and the distant lands of blossom and song, we find the same 
native plant of affection growing luxuriantly, in all climes 
and in all places, a native everywhere, and an exotic no- 
where. The Indian, in his stern, savage vigor, and wild, 
storm-like power, bows, a softened and subdued worshiper, 
at its shrine. The philosopher, in the great laboratory of 
nature, with her crucibles, her telescopes, her fires, and her 



198 POWER OF THE AFFECTIONS. 

laws scattered around him, forgets not to bring his daily- 
gift to the shrine of the heart. The monarch of empires, 
the king of nations, the commander of armies, the conqueror 
of the world, never blots from his soul the immortal image 
of the God of love. 

Affection is universal and almost omnipotent. It is the 
spring-source of nearly all of earth's joys and the occasion 
of much of its most poignant anguish. The fault with the 
world is not so much that there is not affection enough, but 
that it is not properly directed, not sufficiently cultivated, 
not duly controlled. All our affections should be subjected 
to enlightened wisdom. They are of themselves blind im- 
pulses, loving only because they can not help it, acting only 
because it is their nature to act, casting their fragrance upon 
every wind, only because they have the fragrance and know 
not how to retain it. The heart must love. It was made 
to love. 

" The heart, like the tendril, accustomed to cling, 
Let it grow where it will, can not flourish alone ; 
But will lean to the nearest and loveliest thing 
It can twine with itself and make closely its own." 

If, then, it must and will exercise its native and inborn 
powers, it is evident that it should be so directed 'and cul- 
tivated that its affections shall yield the greatest possible 
amount of joy, and the least possible amount of misery. 
The natural result of the peaceful exercise of the affections 
is happiness the most pure and thrilling. This is always 
the result, when they are not fixed upon unworthy objects, 
or fail in that reciprocity which they covet, in which lies 



CHARM OF RECIPROCITY. 197 

their highest and most exquisite charm. The mother who 
wastes her affections upon her un dutiful and unloving child, 
feels a pain more severe, arising from this want of recipro- 
city, than any other which it is possible for her to feel. So 
of every other affection. Its secret and all-glorious charm 
lies in its reciprocity. It is important, then, that every 
youth understand the true basis of affection, that in the for- 
mation of attachments, in the cultivation of friendships, in 
the choice of companions, he may be so guided by wisdom 
that all such affections shall yield the serene and heavenly 
charm of love, and be destitute of its thorn and its woe. 

Attachments must be formed, friendship's golden chain 
must be forged, companions must be selected from the 
circle of youth's acquaintance. There is no avoiding this. 
Then the duty of every youth is to be wise, and love that, 
and only that, which is lovely ; seek the companionship of 
that, and that only, which is good; choose for associates 
those, and those only, who are pure and worthy ; trust those, 
and those only, who are honest ; and cherish the affections of 
those, and those only, to whom the whole heart's confidence 
can be yielded without fear or mental reservation. The 
basis of all true and lasting affection is real worth, genuine 
mental excellence. He who loves, or confides in aught else, 
builds upon a sandy foundation, and must surely feel a 
wreck of heart and a blight of hopes. It can not last ; for 
that upon which it is built must pass away, and with it 
must pass away the affection. But real worth is enduring. 
Mental and moral excellence is an eternal thing. It ran 
not pass away. It is that which God loves. It is that 



198 OMNIPOTENCE OF LOVE. 

which makes heaven the glorious place it is. It is that upon 
which angels base the transcendent love that enriches their 
hearts. It is that which gives the robes of glory to the 
celestial inhabitants, that which crowns them with the dia- 
dem of immortal beauty. All affection, all friendship based 
upon this must be pure and enduring. It will grow deeper 
and purer with age, and strengthen with the increase of 
years. Every day will make it more heavenly, more sacred, 
more holy, and more happy in its spiritual results. Every 
day it will fill more and more all the chambers of the soul 
with sadness. Every day its radiance will be more soft 
and pure, and its influence more exalted and powerful. Its 
effects will be visible in all the life. It will teach the tongue 
to speak its own soft words, of tenderness ; it will mellow 
the voice to the cadences of harp-like music ; it will give 
its own glorious summer radiance to the eye. It will 
wreathe itself in smiles all over the countenance, or flow 
in the dewy tears of sympathy. It will guide the feet in 
the way of righteousness. It will change the lusts to mis- 
sionaries of purity and affectionate fervor ; and inspire the 
whole soul with the life and beauty of its own celestial 
sweetness. These are its effects in life. But they go 
beyond. Eternity shall behold all the glory and blessed- 
ness of such affections. They shall be more bright and 
glorious in that world than in this. The soul that loves 
trul v once, loves forever. 

A friendship based upon real worth is an immortal thing. 
It will add as much to the glory and blessedness of heaven 
as it does to the happiness of earth. It is the radiance that 



HOW TO CULTIVATE THE AFFECTIONS. 199 

shineth unto the perfect day. It is the bead that sparkles 
on the cup of immortality. It is the golden fruit that hangs 
on the tree of eternal life. Glorious thing is real virtue- 
based and wisdom-crowned "affection. Earth without it 
would be colder than the icy grave. Heaven without it 
would be the deepest hell. So deep is the affectionate por- 
tion of our nature, and so thoroughly does it transfuse it- 
self through our whole being, that we may well regard it 
as worthy of our deepest and most devout study, and our 
best efforts for its cultivation. It is the business of our 
schools to cultivate our intellects. It is the business of 
life to cultivate the affections. If we would consult our 
own happiness, if we would consult our own usefulness, if 
we would consult the well-being of our fellows, we shall 
strive to cultivate properly the affectionate portion of our 
natures. 

•But the question may occur to some of my young friends, 
" How shall I cultivate my affections — what course shall I 
pursue to develop their internal strength and beauty, and 
to guard them from evil f First of all, you should seek a 
knowledge of genuine mental worth — of real spiritual ex- 
cellence ; study for an acquaintance with that which alone 
is the true and sure basis of affection. You should learn 
to admire goodness for its own intrinsic merit — for its own 
kind redness with God ; to look upon virtue as supremely 
excellent and lovely ; to cherish the deepest and most sin 
cere respect for the real adornments of the inner man ; to 
revere with all your soul moral excellence, moral force, 
the energy of moral power. You should cherish so perpet 



200 REVERENCE FOR MORAL PURITY. 

ually, so earnestly, and so devotedly your respect for the 
good, the beautiful, the true in human character, that 
wherever you find them you shall feel yourself wedded to 
them — feel yourself drawn to them by a spiritual attraction. 
The first and highest, and most perpetual study of your 
life should be, to develop within yourself an absolute and 
positive reverence for moral purity and power. You should 
teach your soul to loathe impurity ; to abhor, with a deep 
and hearty disgust, all moral debasement ; to shudder at the 
thought of doing evil, or of seeing it in others. There is 
no such thing as cultivating too deep an abhorrence of evil, 

O.O.J. 7 

or too high a respect and admiration for moral excellence. 
The very thought of wrong should be cast out of the mind, 
as its most deadly enemy ; while the thoughts of goodness, 
purity, all moral loveliness, should be cherished as angel 
guests, which are building up within you a sure foundation 
for pure and permanent affections. There is nothing else 
that seems to me to be of so much importance, of such 
priceless value, as a just appreciation of moral worth. It 
is not only the basis of all true affection, but the foundation 
of all that is noble, great, and good in human character. 
The basis of moral excellence may be placed in the religious 
principle. This is the only safe and sure foundation. The 
religious feelings, religious affections, religious sentiments 
should be cultivated most assiduously. The fervor of re- 
ligious feelings should transfuse itself through the whole 
being. Religion should be held as a sacred and heavenly 
thing. Religious feelings should be respected everywhere, 
and in every body. We should hold them so supremely 



MORAL WORTH THE BASIS OF ENDURING LOVE. 201 

sacred, as to feel that we have no power to outrage the re- 
ligious sentiments or feelings of any human being. And 
we should feel that an affection based on such a respect for 
things sacred and good, must be pure and permanent. 

If we cultivate such feelings, such a reverence for virtue 
and religion, for all the excellencies of moral worth, we 
shall build up within ourselves a beautiful and glorious 
foundation for all the affections that ever glow in the human 
heart, and erect the only standard by which to judge of the 
purity and exeellency of the affections of others. We 
should learn to believe that no affection is to be looked 
upon with perfect confidence, that is not thus based upon 
the high ground of moral and religious sanctity and truth. 
And we should also learn to have the utmost confidence in 
affections thus based upon the most elevated feelings of the 
human soul. This will give a moral and religious aspect 
to the affections. It will give them the highest sanctions 
of the soul. It will make them redolent with sanctity and 
heaven. It will make the heart feel that God smiles upon 
all its loves. No idea, no feeling, gives such power to the 
human heart as a sense of the approval of God. And no 
thought sanctifies the affections as that which feels His di- 
vine presence filling the soul with its spirit and power. 

When such a state of mind is attained, a basis is formed 
for the noblest and purest affections which can glow in a 
human heart. They will be built upon moral worth, and 
be fixed on this as their object. They will be deep, taking 
hold upon the most sanctified and godlike powers of the 
human soul. They will be firm, being supported by the 

9* 



202 REASON AND WILL THE GUIDE OF AFFECTION. 

holiest sanctions of conscience. They will be enlightened, 
being directed by the sunlight of reason. They will be 
lasting, being built upon a sure foundation. Nothing is 
clearer to my mind than that affection should be subject to 
the will, and directed according to the dictates of reason and 
conscience. The fires of affection should never be permit- 
ted to kindle till reason and conscience have decided upon 
the worthiness of the "object. And when they have given 
;i favorable decision, no earthly considerations should be 
permitted to quench the flames of love in the heart. The 
nappiness, the purity of soul, the moral cultivation arising 
from the exercise of pure and genuine affections, are never 
to be weighed against considerations of a sinister and world* 
ly character. Nothing is holier, nothing is lovelier, nothing 
is happier, nothing is more godlike than the heart's offering 
upon its altar of love. And hence nothing should be per- 
mitted to pollute the sacred gift. It is a heavenly thing, 
and should be viewed and treated as such. We should look 
upon pure affection with something of that feeling which 
we have when we think of God, or His holy heaven. It 
should be viewed with reverence. It should be regarded 
as a holy emanation from the Divinity. We should no 
more speak or think lightly of it than we would of the name 
of the most Holy One. We should no more make it a 
subject of wit, merriment, and laughter, than we would the 
most sacred rite of our holy religion. Any thing which is 
calculated to detract from the sacredness of the heart's af- 
fections, we should regard as a species of blasphemy. I 
have had my feelings as much and as often shocked at the 



FILIAL AFFECTION. 203 

light and contemptuous manner in which I have heard the 
heart's most sacred affections spoken of, as at the profanity 
and blasphemy that I have heard upon the street. All such 
remarks are truly painful to me, and it seems to me they 
must be to all who truly estimate the sacredness and love- 
liness of our affectionate natures. We can not expect to 
cultivate very much our affections till we have learned to 
respect and revere the heart, till it becomes to us a sacred, 
God-honored thing. When we have thus learned to respect 
all the affections of the heart, we have made much progress 
in the way of their cultivation. If we thus respect them, 
we shall use them tenderly and sacredly, use ihem much, 
and with great care, with respect to their object. And this 
leads me to the great means in the cultivation of the affec- 
tions. It is their use — their action — directed by an enlight- 
ened judgment toward proper objects. It is the part of 
the judgment to choose the objects upon which our hearts 
shall fix their glowing energies. It is the part of the affec- 
tions to love those objects with fervency and faithfulness ; 
and in the exercise of their powers of attachment, they will 
acquire strength, permanency, purity, beauty, and energy. 
Every action augments their power, deepens their fervency, 
and extends their influence over the other powers and into 
the life. Every exercise enlarges their capacities, and 
makes more sublime and happy the soul in which they 
dwell. But there are various kinds of affection, each of 
which should be duly and properly cultivated. 

I. Firsts is the affection which the young owe to their 
parents. And how strong and how pure it should be? 



204 TRUST OKLY THOSE WHO LOVE TIIEIB PARENTS. 

How can children ever half repay their parents for their 
watchings, anxieties, labors, toils, trials, patience, and love? 
Think of the utter helplessness of the long years of infan- 
cy, of the entire dependence of succeeding childhood, of the 
necessities and wants of youth, of the burning solicitude of 
parents, and their deep and inexhaustible love. Think of 
their long years of unwearied toil, of their deep and soul- 
felt devotion to the interests of their offspring, of the ma- 
jesty and matchless power of their unselfish affections, and 
then say whether it is possible for youth to repay too much 
love and gratitude for all this bestowal of parental anxiety ? 
Oh, what thankfulness should fill every youth's heart, what 
a glorious return of love ! Every clay should they make 
glad their parents' hearts. Every day should they give 
them some token of love. Every hour should their own 
hearts glow with gratitude and holy respect for those who 
have given them being, and loved them so fervently and 
long. Nothing is better to warm and quicken all the af- 
fections than such respect. Who can trust an ungrateful 
child'? Who can believe that his affections for any object 
can be firm and pure ? ' The child who has loved long and 
well his parents has thoroughly electrified his affections, 
has surcharged them with the sweet spirit of an affectionate 
tenderness, which will pervade his entire heart, and will, 
make him better and holier forever. The affections of such 
a child are always to be trusted. As well may we doubt 
an angel, as such an one. And here let me say to all youth, 
in choosing your companions, those to whom you are to 
intrust your heart's treasures, choose those, and those only, 



FRATERNAL AFFECTION. 

who love well their parents. Such will be true as steel 
and tender as a mother's heart. 

II. The fraternal is another kind of affection, which should 
be assiduously cultivated ; that affection which exists between 

brothers and sisters of the same family. It is a beautiful 
and lovely feeling, and seems to me to be wholly unselfish, 
and angelic in its character. It must necessarily be a pure 
spiritual love. It arises not from a sense of gratitude, or 
for favors received, or from any thing else, but the endear 
ing relationship of family. It rests not on any thing but 
a spiritual affinity of soul. It should be cultivated as one 
of the sweetest plants in the garden of the heart. It should 
be watered every morning and evening with the dews of 
good-nature, and sunned all day with the light of kindness. 
It should bear nothing but loving and tender words, even 
the dulcet music of home, see nothing but smiles and the 
tokens of confidence and sympathy, and know nothing but 
its own spirit of tenderness and unity. Home is the nur 
sery of affection. It is love's cradling-place. It is the Eden 
of young attachments. And here should be planted and 
tended all the germs of love, every seed that shall ever 
sprout in the heart. And how carefully should they be 
tended ; how guarded against the frosts of jealousy, anger, 
envy, pride, vanity, and ambition! How rooted in the 
best soil of the heart, and nourished and cultivated by the 
soul's best husbandry. If any would have fervent and 
noble affections, such as give power and glory to the human 
heart, such as sanctify the soul, and make it supremely beau- 
tiful, such as an angel might covet without shame, let him 



206 LOVE OF COUNTRY. 

cultivate well all the home feelings, all that make home the 
most lovely place on earth, the only fit archetype of heaven. 
Home is the heart's garden. Its sunshine and its flowers 
are here. All its beautiful, all its lovely things are here. 
And here should be expended care, toil, effort, patience, and 
whatever may be necessary to make them still more love- 
ly. We can not honor with too deep a reverence the home 
affections. We can not cultivate them with too assiduous 
a care. We can not cherish them with too much solicitude. 
For here is the center of our purest happiness, the spring 
of our deepest and strongest tides of joy. 

When the home affections are duly cultivated, all others 
follow, or grow out of these, as a natural consequence. 
Home is the great seeding-place of every affection that ever 
grows in the heart. Hence I would say to all youth, to all 
children, to all* parents, to all people, tend well the hearth- 
stone garden. Watch, prune, and cultivate it with all pru- 
dence and wisdom, with all fervency of spirit. Let the 
music of the heart swell its notes here in one perpetual an- 
them of good- will. Let praise and prayer, and fervent 
good wishes, and words and works, hallow its sacred shrine. 
Let offices of love go round like smiles at a feast of joy. 
Let the whole soul devote its energies to making happy its 
home, and greatly will it be blessed, and greatly will it be 
honored. 

III. Another affection which should be faithfully fostered 
is the love of country. Out of the love of home grows the 
wider love of country. This is a noble and generous affec- 
tion. Patriotism is a holy altar-fire of the human soul. 



UNIVERSALITY OF HOME-LOVE, 207 

In a country like ours there is every possible inducement 
to give it its highest and purest expression. If the Lap- 
lander, chilling among his banks of eternal snow ; or the 
Russian, ground by the hand of oppression ; or the Turk, 
forced to be a tool of power, lust, and caprice ; or the Chi 
nean, shut out from the world, and in his den, where igno- 
rant hordes are born and die in poverty and stupidity, can 
shout, and fight, and die for his country, what ought not 
the American youth to feel and do ! Talk of other lands ! 
England's glory, as queen of the seas ; France, with her 
hills of grape and her groves of pleasure ; Italy, with her 
sunny skies, her genial clime, and monuments of other days 
of grandeur ! What are they, compared to our own great 
land of prairie and sloping hill, of broad rivers and rolling 
lakes; of wide savannas; of continents of corn, and wheat, 
and cotton ; of cane, and grass, and grazing herds ; of towns, 
and cities, and states ; of busy millions of free, happy, 
thriving people, with schools, colleges, and churches at their 
doors ; and telegraphs, railroads, and libraries in all their 
towns ? What are they, huddled and cramped in their 
crowded little corners, jostling against each other at every 
turn, compared with our broad sweep of territory stretching 
from sunrise to sunset, the unbroken solitudes of which 
would hide the European millions from the light of the sun 
and sight of the world ? We have room to strive, and 
labor, and grow, and enough to grow on. If ever youth 
had the stimulus of all things great and glorious, to awaken 
their patriotism and stir their young blood in their 
country's behalf, the youth of America must be the favored 



208 PATRIOTISM. 

ones. Liberty's home, freedom's cradle, religion's altar, 
humanity's shrine, learning's retreat, the ark of safety and 
the olive branch of peace are all theirs. Every thing that 
can be afforded by outward advantages, that the Creator 
can give or the government bestow, are laid in profuse 
abundance at their feet. They have but to step into the 
field, and saw, and pluck, and eat; they have but to do 
their duty to be honored, enriched, and blessed with all 
needed worldly comforts and spiritual opportunities and 
excellences. 

Love their country ! They are the most ungrateful 
children in the world if they do not. Such ingratitude 
would show them unworthy of their country's blessings ; 
unworthy the sires whose names they bear, or the noble 
mothers who bore them. The very literature of our 
country is like the shining heavens for beauty. It is 
studded with names which are blazing suns in the moral 
firmament, and glittering with deeds and lives of glory 
that have come upon the world like a quick fall of stars. 
Our sciences are as solid as our literature is beautiful ; and 
our mechanism as useful as our land is free. Who can 
fail to love such a country ? A country's hope and prom- 
ise are its youth; and when a country does every thing 
for its youth, they, in turn, ought to do much for her, at 
least love her with pure hearts fervently, and serve her 
with clean hand and noble lives honorably. 

Patriotism is shown in deeds, in lives which do honor 
to a country, and strengthen the pillars of moral principle 
on which she rests. Let American youth vie with each 



PHILANTHROPY. 209 

other in making strong the right arm of their country's 
virtue and honor, and in laying deep in their hearts the 
principles of her permanency and prosperity. 

IV. Out of a true love of country should grow a wider 
one, one which should reach round the world, one which 
should encompass the race. On the soil of America and 
in the hearts of her youth should philanthropy rear her 
asylum for the oppressed of all nations. The genuine spirit 
of reform and progress should be cradled in the bosom of 
every son and daughter of our home of the free and the 
brave. The watchword of every youth should be c; Excel- 
sior 5 ' — onward and upward — not for himself alone, but for 
the world. The world his large heart should love; the 
world he should honor with his wishes, prayers, and affec- 
tions. Man is everywhere brother to his fellow. Frater- 
nity is the girdle of nations. The race is one. It is a 
family of God. Where may we look with more confidence 
for the embodiment of this grand feeling of fraternity than 
to the hearts and lives of American youth? True reform 
grows out of fraternal affection, the principle of philan- 
thropy. Every American should be a genuine reformer; 
not a hunter after something neiv, but a hunter after some- 
thing good ; something that will bless men everywhere ; 
something as universal in its application and utility as the 
principle of political and religious liberty, which we offer 
as our gift-example to the world. Not content should we 
be till our blessings encircle and illumine the whole earth. 
In the cause of human redemption should we labor, as self 
consecrated missionaries, loving and blessing wherever we go. 



b 



210 UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD. 

Thus do we and may we cultivate the noble affections 
which the Father has given us, enlarging and ennobling our 
own hearts, blessing and making happy our fellows from 
our home outward through parents, brothers, sisters, com- 
panions, friends, and country, till we at length reach our 
arms around our race and fold it to our bosom, as the 
great family which it is our duty and privilege to love and 
bless. 



LECTURE XIV. 
tf 

COUETSHIP. 

The Season of Courtship the most Important part of Life — Too Serious a Matter 
for a Joke — Why Marriage is a Lottery — Superficial Courtship — Marriage Re- 
veals the True Character — Love Character, not Person merely — Feeling, not 
Iieason, leads astray — True Object of Courtship — Proper Age to Select Compan- 
ions — Childish Courtships unsafe — Evils of Premature Marriages — False Ideas 
of Married Life — Proper Age to Marry — A Companion without a Character — 
"What is a Companion? — Courtship should Eeveal the True Character — Mutual 
Hypocrisy and Deception — Court for the Future as well as for the Present — 
True Marriage not a Lottery. 

What ! a lecture on courtship ! methinks my reader ex- 
claims. Yes ; why not % Is not courtship an important 
matter; and is not the period of courtship an important 
part of every one's life ? Is it not important to know how 
to court well, as well as to know how to do any thing else 
well % Bad courting is the worst business in the world ; 
and a poor job at it results in the most horrid conse- 
quences. Conjugal infelicity is earth's most fiery hell. It 
is occasioned by bad courting. Young reader, if you wish 
to live peacefully and pleasantly with your companion, 
and set the world an example of a true life, come and sit 
down with me, and let us learn how to court. Come with 
a serious soul, with an earnest desire to be benefited. Lay 
aside lightness and jesting. Joke about courting ! As 
well may you joke about the most solemn realities of relig- 
ion, death, and eternity. It is one of the most serious mat- 



212 TOO SERIOUS A MATTER FOR A JOKE. 

ters of life. Your weal or woe, and the weal or woe of 
those that shall come after you, and the influence you shall 
exert upon the world, depend in a great manner upon the 
wisdom and virtue with which you conduct your prepara- 
tion for marriage. Joke about such a matter ! It is a 
horrid outrage upon the most holy and exalted feelings d£* 
the human soul, and the most sacred and important relation 
of life. It is a vulgarism and wickedness to be compared 
only to blasphemy. It had, and still has, its origin in the 
basest lust. The refined soul is always disgusted with it. 
It is awfully demoralizing in its tendency, and low and base 
in its character. It is true, many bandy their low jokes 
upon this matter in thoughtlessness, But if they would 
take one moment's sober reflection upon it, they would see 
the impropriety of jesting about the most delicate, serious, 
and sacred feelings and relations in human existence. The 
whole tendency of such lightness is to cause the marriage 
relation to be lightly esteemed, and courtship to be made 
a round of low fun and frolic, in which every species of de- 
ception is endeavored to be played off. Until it is viewed 
in its true light, in that sober earnestness which the sub- 
ject demands, how can courtship be any thing else than a 
grand game of hypocrisy, resulting in wickedness and mis- 
ery the most ruinous and deplorable % 

Listen to the jests on this subject in every gay circle 
among the old and young. Do they not all clearly show 
that their authors regard courtship as a grand cheat — a 
game of chance, in which the most skillful in deception is 
the winner ; and do they not, by the expression of such 



WHY MABRIAGE IS A LOTTERY. 213 

debasing views, encourage this wooing fraud among the 
young % Nothing in the common practice of men is more 
deleterious in its consequences than the light, frivolous 
manner in which courtship and marriage are treated. They 
are made the subjects of the lowest and rudest nonsense 
and vulgarity. And almost the whole community seem 
to enter into this tirade of practical slander against the 
highest proprieties of life and virtue. And by the gust of 
pleasure that seems to attend it, we should judge that it is 
enjoyed. A sad commentary is this upon the virtuous 
feeling of the community. 

Let all joking, low vulgarities, innuendoes, hints, puns, 
and nonsense on this subject be most heartily disapproved ; 
yea, condemned as absolutely wrong and baneful in their 
influence. Especially let the virtuous and pure-minded 
discountenance every thing of the kind by precept and ex- 
ample. 

''•Marriage is a lottery," exclaims almost every man and 
woman you meet. And why is it so ? Simply because 
courtship is a grand scheme of deception. Is it not so? 
Who courts honestly? Some, it is true; but few, indeed. 
Let us see; it is conducted something like this. A young 
man and woman meet at a party, ball, school, or church. 
The young man sees something in the lady that attracts 
his attention ; it may be her pretty face, her golden curls, 
her flashing eyes, her delicate hand or slender waist, or 
snowy neck, or graceful carriage, or more likely, the plu- 
mage in which the bird shines. He looks again, and then 
again, and without one particle vf sense or reason for it, 



214 SUPERFICIAL COURTSHIP. 

save that he has caught the fair one's eye, his attraction 
rises into captivation. He seeks an introduction. A little 
parly of nonsense ensues, about fashions, parties, beaux and 
belles, and a few jokes pass about "invitations," "captiva- 
tions," "runaway matches," etc.; then an appointment for 
another meeting, a walk, a visit to a saloon, a neighbor, 
or something of the kind, follows, and they part, both de- 
termined, in the utmost desperation, to catch the prize, if 
possible. They dream, and sing, and make verses about 
each other, and meditate ways and means to appear capti- 
vating at the next meeting, till it arrives ; when, lo ! they 
meet, all wreathed in smiles, and shining in beautiful things. 
How can it be otherwise than that their captivation shall 
became absolute adoration now. The afternoon and even- 
ing are spent together, each in perfect delight. They talk 
about flowers, and stars, and poetry ; and give hints, and 
signs, and tokens, till each understands the other's captiva- 
tion. They part, with an engagement to meet again. Now 
comes the tug of war. How shall they keep up the cap- 
tivation ? Every device is resorted to ; smiles are profuse, 
deceits in standing, business, wealth, associates, character, 
dispositions, opinions, tastes, education, and almost every 
thing else are now practiced ; not with a view particularly 
to deceive, but to please. Thus passes away a month or 
two, or three, perhaps, in sunshine warm and fresh as ever 
shone, and the happy pair are married ; full of the most 
visionary expectations of happiness, and ardent and sincere 
in their affections as human hearts can well be. They know 
nothing of each other's real characters. They are acquaint- 



MARRIAGE REVEALS THE TRUE CHARACTER. 215 

ed only with their courtship characters, They do not love 
each other's real characters, for they know not what they 
are ; but their courtship characters they love with all their 
souls. And why should they not ; they were beautiful and 
pleasing; full of tenderness, self-sacrifice, ardor, and affec- 
tion. No one can help loving such characters, and the 
persons that bear them. 

Married life now comes, and ushers in its morning glory, 
and they are happy as a happy pair can well be, for a 
while. But " life is real,"' and character is real, and love 
is real. When life's reality comes, they find things in each 
other's characters that perfectly startle them. Every day 
reveals something new and something unpleasant. The 
courtship character slowly fades away, and with it the court- 
ship love. Now comes disappointment, sorrow, regret. 
They find that their characters are entirely dissimilar. 
Married life is a burden, full of cares, vexations, and dis- 
appointments. But they must make the best of it, and 
bear it through. Yes, marriage is a lottery. They know 
it. Some may get prizes, and some may not. No one 
knows before he draws, whether he will draw a blank or a 
prize. This is their conclusion. 

No>v, is it not just and right that they should be misera- 
ble ? They acted like fools, and they have no right to com- 
plain at the just and natural consequences of their senseless 
course. It is right to love, and love earnestly, but they 
should have known what they loved. They should have 
loved in the light, and not in the dark; should have loved 
by wisdom, and not by impulse ; should have known what 



216 LOVE CHARACTER, NOT PERSON MERELY. 

they loved, and not love an imaginary character. They 
went about it as though it was a mere childish work of fancy, 
and not as about a solemn, life-lasting reality. They meant 
well, but they did not think well and act well. Their 
intentions were good, but their actions were very unwise. 
In the first place, they had no right " to fall in love at 
first sight." They might have been pleased and interested 
in each other at once ; but they should have known how 
and why they were interested, should have understood the 
secret of that interest, and been sure that it was an interest 
founded in the spiritual character, and not in the outward 
person or dress, form or feature. It is character that we 
love, and not person. We invest every person we love 
with a character, and we love him or her for that character, 
and not for the person. The most pleasing person in the 
world becomes disgusting when known to possess a bad 
character ; and the most unpleasant personal figure becomes 
interesting when known to be the habitation of an angelic 
soul. Now, how can love at first sight be any thing else 
than a love of the person ? A character can not be known 
so quick. Such a love is not to be trusted. It is unwise, 
and rests upon no firmer foundation than fancy, or some- 
thing worse. It has no guarentee of continuance, and should 
not be relied upon as of any value, not even as a seed for 
a riper and fuller love. " Love at first sight" is generally 
a vision of the fancy, originating in a fevered or morbid 
state of mind. It is a mere " will-of-the-wisp," that will 
do well enough to look at, if we never mind any thing 
about it. It is sometimes the case that highly congenial 



FEELING, NOT REASON, LEADS ASTRAY. 217 

characters impress each other with a conviction of their 
congeniality at their first meeting, which conviction arises 
from the absolute evidences of character, and not from vis- 
ions of beauty floating about the person. As long as people 
marry from " love at first sight,*' we must expect that they 
will believe that marriage is a lottery, and that they have 
drawn a blank. 

In the second place, they did not court in the right way. 
They courted by impulse, and not by judgment ; it was a 
process of wooing, and not of discovery ; it was an effort 
to please, and not a search for companionship ; it was done 
with excitement, and not with calmness and deliberation ; 
it was done in haste, and not with cautious prudence ; it 
was a vision of the heart, and not a solemn reality ; it was 
conducted by feeling, and not by reason ; it was so man- 
aged as to be a perpetual blandishment of pleasure the 
most intoxicating and delightful, and not a trying ordeal for 
the enduring realities of solid and stubborn life ; i v t was a 
perpetual yielding up of every thing, and not a firm main- 
taining of every thing that belongs to the man or woman. 
In almost every particular it was false, and hence must be 
followed by evil consequences. All similar courting is bad, 
absolutely wrong. 

I. Courting is not children 's play. Nothing is further 
from right than children's wooing. Boys and girls should 
love each other's society, and should enjoy it as much as 
possible. They should be reared together, and educated 
together, even through their entire course of study. A girl 
should never be sent to school where there are no boys, 

10 



218 TKUE OBJECT OF COURTSHIP. 

and a boy where there are no girls. The softening, subdu- 
ing, moralizing, and stimulating influence of each sex should 
be felt upon the other. It is very great, and an influence 
which can not well be dispensed with in the proper training 
of the young character. But their intercourse should be 
the intercourse of young friends. Marriage is a subject of 
too deep importance for them to think of, only as a most 
important step, to be taken when age and experience shall 
have given them sufficient wisdom to take it with discretion. 
Their social intercourse should be general, and not particu- 
lar. They should study each other's happiness, and enjoy 
much each other's society. And their intercourse should 
be courteous, refined, prudent, and obliging. The young 
gentleman and the young lady should be fully developed 
in early youth. They should study to be graceful, cour- 
teous, free and easy in each other's society. Every thing 
that is coarse, inelegant, and unchaste in word and action 
should be studiously avoided. Rudeness, wildness, bois- 
terous conversation, loud laughing, coarse jokes, and every 
thing kindred with these things are out of place in the so- 
ciety of young gentleman and ladies, and when they are in- 
dulged in or permitted without rebuke they show a degree 
of ill-breeding and want of refinement greatly to be disap- 
proved and regretted. 

But not in childhood should any youth think of choosing 
a companion. The ostensible object of courtship is the 
choice of a companion. For no other object should any 
intercourse having the appearance of courtship be permit- 
ted or indulged in. It is a species of high-handed fraud 



PROPER AGE TO SELECT COMPANIONS. 219 

upon an unsuspecting heart, worthy of the heaviest penal- 
ty of public opinion, or law. The affections are too tender 
and sacred to be trifled with. He who does it is a wretch. 
He should be ranked among thieves, robbers, villains, and 
murderers. He who steals money steals trash ; but he who 
steals affections without a return of similar affections, steals 
that which is dearer than life and more precious than wealth. 
His theft is a robbery of the heart. 

There is much trifling courting among the young in some 
portions of the country, that results in such calamitous con- 
sequences ; carried on sometimes when the young man 
means nothing but present pleasure, and sometimes when 
the young woman has no other object in view. Such in- 
tercourse is confined mostly to young men and women 
before they are of age. It is a crying evil, worthy of the 
severest censure. The mothers of all such youth should 
know when they are out. This evil has its origin chiefly 
in the haste to get married, so strongly evinced by many 
young persons, even before they are of age. How are chil- 
dren, or youth, not of age, capable of choosing companions 
for life, such as shall render their married life their greatest 
earthly blessing, as it should? The law regards them as 
incapable of taking care of themselves, of making civil con- 
tracts, because of their want of wisdom. How then can 
they be capable of contracting for a companion for life ? 
and forming a contract, too, requiring as much wisdom, in- 
sight into character, knowledge of human nature, and as 
great a use of real judgment, as any act we have to per- 
form in our whole life? 



220 CHILDISH COURTSHIPS UNSAFE. 

Nothing is more preposterous, absurd, and dangerous 
than childhood courting. It is almost sure to result in dis- 
appointment, anguish, remorse, or a hap-hazard marriage. 
All such early marriage alliances are hap-hazard alliances 
and the resultant marriages are lotteries. Childhood mar- 
riages are lotteries. This fact is incontrovertable. No 
girl under eighteen or boy under twenty-one is capable of 
choosing a companion with any degree of certainty, which 
will be such as they shall want in all the stern realities of 
life. Those who will madly risk the choice so early, must 
risk the consequences, and not complain when the evil day 
cometh. Because I fancy a girl at sixteen for a wife, is no 
good reason why I should fancy her at twenty -five. Her 
character at sixteen is not formed. She does not know her- 
self what she will be at twenty -five, nor does her mother, 
or any human being. That character depends upon the 
hidden forces of her soul, which none can detect but the 
most skillful reader of the scientific language of psychology, 
and upon the circumstances which shall attend her life. 
And equally undeveloped is a young man's character at 
nineteen. Who can tell what he will be? The girl that 
gives her life into his keeping at that age, is mad with folly 
or drunk with the intoxication of childish passion. And 
the young man and woman who form a solemn matrimonial 
alliance at that age, or any age before they have attained 
manhood and womanhood, do it more in folly than in wis- 
dom, more in passion than in love, do it at the risk of their 
life's peace, and the most fearful consequences that follow 
in the train of such matrimonial adventures. It can only 



EVILS OF PREMATURE MARRIAGES. 221 

be called a matrimonial adventure. They do it in child- 
ish ignorance. It is not possible for a youth at that age to 
have a judgment sufficiently matured, and a heart sufficiently 
subdued, to render him capable of forming an absolutely 
correct opinion upon a subject of such vast importance and 
such complicated results. Treat it lightly as you will, it 
is a subject of the most momentous importance to human 
virtue, prosperity, and happiness, and involves much of the 
most intricate and profound philosophy of human life, con- 
duct, and character. Give a subject like this into the hands 
of children, and we must expect such crazy consequences as 
We see almost everywhere prevailing ; and we may expect 
that they will in life come to the conclusion that marriage 
is a lottery, an opinion as far from being a necessary truth 
as it is wicked in its influence. I grant that marriage is a 
lottery with many, and with all who marry very young ; 
but it should be with none. 

A subject of such vast importance requires the matured 
powers of manhood and womanhood, and the experience 
and observation of such maturity. 

My observation has taught me that very early mar 
riages are very seldom eminently prosperous and happy. 
The burning passion in which they were consummated 
soon cools, and is succeeded by indifference ; giving a 
seeming proof of that common saying, that ''hot love is 
soon cold," a lie on its face, which has grown out of the 
exhibitions of early passion. 

There is a vast difference between passion and love. 
Passion is of the animal, and fleeting; love is of the 



222 FALSE IDEAS OF MARRIED LIFE. 

angel, and enduring. That which they fancy is love in 
their silly courtships soon passes away in the reality 
and freedom of marriage, and is succeeded by a sort of 
childish indifference, in which the companion is regarded 
something in the light of any family member, and treated 
as though they had grown up together, and might find fault 
with each other, and speak of and to each other as though 
all thought of the sacred relation existing between them 
had been forgotten. Nearly all persons early married, 
with whom I have been acquainted, give me, in a few years 
after the marriage, the impression that their nuptial day, 
and all its tenderness, and all the refined, delicate feelings 
and memories that have their birth in that hour, have 
been forgotten, or are remembered only to laugh over ; 
while individuals married in mature age carry with them 
through life the memories of their union, and the convic- 
tion of the importance, blessedness, and holiness of the 
state into which it ushered them, as the sweetest and most 
cherished recollections treasured in their minds. I believe 
this difference is not fanciful, but real. It grows out of 
the fact that early marriages are premature, and never 
properly understood or appreciated. When this is the 
case, marriage soon comes to be viewed as a common- 
place matter, and results in no real happiness, no sacred 
joy, no high, virtuous influence, no holy, consecrated life. 
Very early marriages are generally unions of persons, and 
not unions of spirits ; they are outward, and not inward 
unions. 

Such marriages, then, are hazardous in the extreme, and 



A COMPANION WITHOUT A CHARACTER. 223 

for many reasons are generally wrong. A lady should 
seldom be married under twenty-two and a gentleman 
under twenty-four. A marriage consummated before 
twenty-five, with a lady, and before twenty-seven, with a 
gentleman, is an early marriage. And they can not well 
be prepared to marry intellectually or physically before 
these periods. Very early marriages have been contended 
for only on the ground that marriage is a lottery, and a 
bad draw could be got along better when the mind was very 
young and pliant, so as to be bent to any thing, than after 
it had acquired a fixed character. Only think of it, a com- 
panion without a fixed character ! A baby husband or 
wife ! The thought is ridiculous. Character should be 
fixed before marriage, and none should be united but such 
as are congenial and adapted to each other. Any man or 
icoman would despise a companion without a character. 
The character is the thing we marry as much as the person. 
It is the character we admire, the character we love, the 
character we are influenced by, the character that is to 
bless us in the married state, the character that is to direct 
our family, and give standing, respect, and tone, to our 
household. Characters are not well enough fixed to be 
absolutely certain, till manhood and womanhood are fully 
attained. 

II. I have remarked that the ostensible object of court- 
ship is the choice of a companion. It is not to woo ; it is 
not to charm or gratify, or please, simply for the pr 
pleasure; it is not for the present sweets of such an inti- 
mate and confiding intercourse. It is simply and plainly 



224 WHAT IS A COMPANION? 

for the selection of a life's companion — one who must bear, 
suffer, and enjoy life with us, in all its frowns and smiles, 
joys and sorrows — one who can walk pleasantly, willingly, 
and confidingly, by our side, through all the intricate and 
changing vicissitudes incident to mortal life. Now, how 
shall courtship be conducted, so as to make marriage a 
certainty and not a lottery? This is the question. 

Now let us ask, what is to be sought ? You answer, 
a companion. What is a companion % A congenial spirit, 
one possessed of an interior constitution of soul similar to 
our own, of similar age, opinions, tastes, habits, modes of 
thought, and feeling. A congenial spirit is one who, un- 
der any given combination of circumstances, would be 
affected, and feel and act as we ourselves would. It is 
one who would enjoy what we would enjoy, dislike what 
we would dislike, approve what we would approve, and 
condemn wdiat we would condemn, not for the purpose of 
agreeing with us, but of his or her own free will. This is 
a companion ; one who is kindred in soul with us; who is 
already united to us by the ties of spiritual harmony ; 
which union it is the object of courtship to discover. 
Courtship, then, is a voyage of discovery ; or a court of in- 
quiry, established by mutual consent of the parties, to see 
wherein and to what extent there is a harmony existing 
between their spiritual beings. It is not for the purpose 
of effecting a harmony, or of forcing a union, or of coaxing 
one, but simply to see whether one exists already. 

Unions are formed by God himself in the spiritual 
beings. These unions are to be found. When a young 



COURTSHIP SHOULD REVEAL THE TRUE CHARACTER. 225 

man and woman meet, and form an acquaintance, if they 
imagine, from the pleasure they feel in each other's society, 
from expressed opinions, from known or supposed charac- 
ter, from personal appearance, or any thing else, that there 
is a true spiritual harmony existing between them, it is 
their duty as well as a privilege to establish a court of in- 
quiry, or courtship, as the world calls it, for the purpose 
of comparing their souls or their real characters ; to see 
wherein and to what extent they are harmonious ; to see 
how much they are alike and how much they are unlike ; 
to see whether they are companions in heart or not. This, 
when faithfully performed, is not always the most pleasant 
inquiry in the world. It is often a severe ordeal, requiring 
great self-denial and sacrifice. To unvail one's soul to the 
gaze of another, and that other the one of all the world 
whom we w T ish to have respect us most — to expose to the 
full blaze of light our inmost characters, our faults, our 
weaknesses, our passions, our most exposed points — to tell 
how easily we are tempted, how readily we yield to evil 
circumstances, and how conscious we are of our own want 
of moral strength and true harmony of soul, is not a pleas- 
ant task ; and yet it is a task which should be faithfully 
performed. All these weaknesses and inharmonies must 
be revealed in the married state ; they can not then be long 
concealed. That is a state of freedom, of the most per- 
fect exposure. The most indescribable shades and tints 
of character will be revealed in it. If you conceal your- 
self in courtship, you can not always do it. Believe it, mar- 
riage is a state of spiritual exposure ; courtship should be 

10* 



220 MUTUAL HYPOCRISY AND DECEPTION. 

its proper forerunner. What we are to give and what we 
are to get, should be known before we enter into indisso- 
luble bonds. A failure to seek and impart this knowledge 
has caused untold anguish and mortification. 

Courtship, as it is generally conducted, is a game at 
" blindman's buff," only that both parties are blinded. 
They voluntarily blind themselves, and then blind each 
other ; and thus they " go it blind," till their eyes are 
opened in marriage. But not faults alone should be re- 
vealed and studied, but the whole character. It is emphati 
cally a study ; a study of character, of soul, the most 
intricate and difficult in the world. It should be com- 
menced with a careful and faithful expression and compari- 
son of opinions. Every opinion entertained by either 
party upon every subject of interest, should be carefully 
expressed and compared with the other's opinion on the 
same subject. I do not mean discussion of opinion, but 
comparison. Nor should it be a hasty comparison, but a 
long and thorough one, revealing the exact point of view 
in which every subject is viewed, the amount and kind of 
information had upon the subject, and the degree and color 
of light in which an opinion has been formed. Opinions 
are among the best indices of character. Hence, this com- 
parison of opinion should be most thorough. If there is 
not a general harmony of opinion, the subject should be 
discussed and the court adjourned forever. The parties 
should not be satisfied with a partial agreement, or a half- 
way harmony, and dismiss the subject with an agreement 
to disagree. Every one may rest assured that this agree- 



COURT FOK THE FUTURE AS WELL AS THE PRESENT. 29 » 

merit will be broken, or at least it will always be a source 
of disquietude, anxiety, and regret. When opinions are 
not harmonious they can only result in unhappiness. 

First and most important of all opinions are the re- 
ligious. On a subject so important and so dear as religion, 
there must be a harmony, or, to say the least, there will be 
a very great loss of pleasure, a continued and deep anxiety 
in both minds, and much secret unhappiness. It is impos- 
sible that it should be otherwise. And hence this subject 
should be earnestly and prayerfully considered. It mat- 
ters not whether the parties have made an open profession 
of any religious sentiment or not. Every body of any 
worth has religious opinions and biases. Then opinions 
on the various subjects of reform, of philanthropy, life, and 
duty, should have their due share of attention ; the sub- 
jects of education, the best modes of instruction, the best 
influences in a family, the kind of family government, and 
all the subjects that will ever interest a growing family ; 
among which will come expenses, manner of living, dr 
equipage, taste, visiting, traveling, reading, industry, econ- 
omy, tattling, gossip, expectations, desires, objects of life, 
marriage, money, honor, etc. If in all these things there 
is found to be a general harmony of opinion, the parties 
may descend to more minute particulars, may go into the 
sacred sanctuary of the affections, and talk of the feelings, 
the tender impulses, and of the manner in which they de- 
sire to live, in the conjugal relation ; going out into every 
subject that is in any manner to effect their happiness, in 
the most secret and retired relations of the state of perfect 



228 TRUE MARRIAGE NOT A LOTTERY. 

physical and spiritual intimacy they -are contemplating. 
If in all these they honestly and inmostly agree, and find a 
deep and thrilling pleasure in their agreement, find their 
union of sentiment to give a charm to their social inter- 
course 5 if now they feel that their hearts are bound as 
well as their sentiments in a holy unity, and that for each 
other they would live, and labor, and make every per 
sonal sacrifice with gladness, and that without each other 
they know not how to live, it is their privilege, yes, their 
duty, to form a matrimonial alliance. And it will not be 
a lottery. They know what they are to give and what 
they are to get. They will be married in the full blaze 
of light and love.; and be married for a happy, virtuous, 
and useful union, to bless themselves and the world with 
a living type of heaven. 



LECTURE XV. 

MAEEIAGE 

Marriage, the Foundation of the Social Fabric — Improper Marriage a living Mis- 
ery — Marriage should be made a Study — Ignorance, the Bane of Matrimony — 
Importance of the Results of Marriage — Characteristics of the Sexes — Contrasts 
and Affinities of Character — Goodness does not constitute Harmony — Duty of 
nearly all to Marry — Matrimonial Candidates Classified— A true Mate the other 
half of Self— Honesty in Matrimonial Matters — Marrying for a Home, Money, 
or Passion — Study thy Constitution — Harmony of Temperament — Intellectual 
Adaptation — Moral and Social Harmony — A thorough Acquaintance necessary. 

Of all the institutions that affect human weal or woe in 
the earth, none is more important than Marriage. It is the 
foundation of the great social fabric ; and conceals within 
its mystic relations the coiled secret of the largest propor- 
tion of happiness and misery connected with the sublunary 
lot of mortals. 

When God formed man, He said, " It is not good for him 
to be alone," So He says of each man and each woman 
now, "It is not good for him or her to be alone." This is 
the Divine annunciation written in the social constitution 
of the race. Not in the Bible only, but in the heart of 
every man and woman, it is found. A marriage-altar is 
erected in every soul by the Hand that made us ; and at 
that altar the Divinity presides, solemnizing, in a cove- 
nant of eternal beauty, peace, and love, the marriage of its 



230 IMPROPER MARRIAGE A LIVING MISERY. 

rightful partner. It is true that God marries the truly mar- 
ried. He joins the spirit partners ; and what He joins no 
man can put asunder. Their persons may be separated, 
and forced into other relations, but their spirits remain 
locked in the eternal embraces of a divinely-appointed 
union. 

All the blessedness, all the utility, efficacy, and happiness 
of the married state, depends upon its truthfulness, or the 
wisdom of the union. Marriage is not necessarily a bles 
sing. Ft may be the bitterest curse. It may sting like an 
adder and bite like a serpent. Its bower is as often made 
of thorns as of roses. It blasts as many sunny expecta- 
tions as it realizes. Every improper marriage is a living 
misery, an undying death. Its bonds are grated bars of 
frozen iron. It is a spirit prison, cold as the dungeon of 
ruin. An illy-mated human pair is the most woeful picture 
of human wretchedness that is presented in the book of life ; 
and yet, such pictures are plenty. Every page we turn 
gives us a view of some such living bondage. But a pro- 
per marriage, a true interior, soul-linked union is a living 
picture of blessedness, unrivaled in beauty. A true mar- 
riage is the soul's Eden. It is the portal of heaven. It is 
the visiting-place of angels. It is the charm indescribable 
of a spirit in captivation with all imaginable beauty and 
loveliness. It is a constant peace-offering, that procures a 
continual Sabbath-day sweetness, rich as the quietude of 
reposing angels. It is not given to words to express the 
refinement of pleasure, the delicacy of joy, and the abound- 
ing fullness of satisfaction, that those feel whom God hath 



MARRIAGE SHOULD BE MADE A STUDY. 231 

joined in a high marriage of spirit. Such a union is the 
highest school of virtue, the soul's convent, where the ves- 
tal fires of purity are kept continually burning. 

Marriage, then, to be a blessing must be properly entered. 
It has its fundamental laws, which must be obeyed. Like 
every good institution, it is subject to fixed and invariable 
laws; and all its blessings are obtained by conformity to 
these laws. Marriage is not a mysterious wonder-working 
institute of the Almighty, which can not be studied by the 
common mind, but a simple necessity laid in man's social 
nature, which may be read and understood of all men who 
will investigate that nature. The reasons for every enjoy- 
ment of the matrimonial life may be understood before 
entering upon its relations. The conditions upon which its 
joys and advantages are realized may be learned before 
hand. It should not be entered in blindness, but rather in 
the daylight of a perfect knowledge of its rules and regula- 
tions, its provisions and conditions, its laws and privileges, 
so that no uncertainty shall attend its realization, no unhap- 
py revealments shall follow a knowledge of its reality. 

Marriage, then, should be made a study. Every youth, 
both male and female, should so consider it. It is the grand 
social institution of humanity. Its laws and relations are 
of momentous importance to the race. Shall it be entered 
blindly, in total ignorance of what it is, what its conditions 
of happiness are ? Its relations involve some of the most 
stern duties and acts of self-denial that men arc called upon 
to perform. Shall youth enter upon such relations without 
a knowledge of these duties? If they do, they must ex- 



232 IGNOKANCE, THE BAKE OF MATRIMONY. 

pect unhappy consequences. How unwise would be that 
man who should assume the responsibilities of a pilot upon 
one of our rivers, without any previous study either of the 
river or business. What folly would he exhibit who should 
attempt the duties of an engineer on a railroad or steam- 
boat, in total ignorance of the nicely adjusted and powerful 
machinery placed under his control. What foolhardiness 
would he exhibit, who, in entire ignorance of the human 
system, should attempt to perform a critical surgical oper- 
ation. And how perfectly irrational would she appear who 
should assume the position of a teacher of the higher scien- 
ces and accomplishments of elegant life, without any pre- 
vious preparation or study. And yet, not more inconsis- 
tent would be these several courses of conduct, than his or 
hers who enters, unprepared by previous study and fore- 
thought, upon the earnest realities of married life. For all 
the professions, trades, and callings in life men and women 
prepare themselves by previous attention to their principles 
and duties. They study them ; devote time, and money, 
and toil to them. Every imaginable case of difficulty or 
trial is considered and duly disposed of according to the 
general principles of the trade or profession. But marriage, 
incomparably the most important and holy relation of life, 
involving the most sacred responsibilities and influences, 
social, civil, and religious, that bear upon men, is entered 
upon in hot haste, or blind stupidity, by a great majority 
of youth. How few make this great social relation a 
serious study, inquiring into all its regulations and seeking 
useful information concerning all its blissful privileges and 






IMPORTANCE OF THE RESULTS OF MARRIAGE. 233 

the duties growing out of them. No subject should be 

more seriously contemplated by youth than this. The 
nature, and character, and wonderful mystery and beauty 
of the sexual relation should be most carefully and studi- 
ously investigated. The entire object of this relation, both 
in its physical and spiritual aspects, as involving the n 
duction of the Divine image in generation after genera' ion, 
increasing beyond all human computation the field or' 
tience and moral accountability, of life, activity, progress, 
and spiritual glory, and uniting in the bonds of a universal 
relationship the vast family of man, binding them all in 
the silken ties of a spiritual affinity, which are the sources 
*of universal love, and out of which grow the common du- 
ties of fraternity, which are so delightful to contemplate 
and glorious to realize, should be studied as the grand 
science of life and love. It should be studied as a source 
of wisdom, a means of virtue, and a fountain of love. The 
singular beauty and adaptedness of this relation to men in 
this world, is so apparent and wonderful, that no one can 
see and appreciate it without a feeling of gratitude to its 
Divine Author and Giver. It has been said that an " un- 
devout astronomer is mad." With much more propriety 
might it be said, that a student of this beautiful and mar- 
velous relation is mad. The starry heavens is a scene ot^ 
cold, shining, physical grandeur ; but this relation enshrines 
an ardent, soul-bearing love, as rich in rational charms 
enduring virtue as it is glorious in its intellectual and moral 
results. Then let every youth study this entire 
all its bearings and relations with devout and serious earn- 



234: CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SEXES. 

estness. The physical and mental constitution of the t\v< 
sexes come most ligitimately within the sphere of this study. 
The duties that belong to each, the privileges that each may 
expect at the hands of the other, the respect and tenderness 
due from each to the other, and the constant watchfulness 
over and interest in each other that they should always feel, 
without one moment's cessation, which ought to grow out 
)f the sexual relation, and always will if it is not abused, 
are most proper topics of reflection as connected with this 
subject. 

No young man has any right to ask a young woman to 
enter the matrimonial bonds with him, till he is thoroughly 
acquainted with the female constitution and character. How 
can he be to her that guardian, friend, and companion, which 
ne should be, if he knows not the delicacy of her physical 
make, the laws to which it is subject, the gentle treatment 
it requires, and the sensitiveness of her feelings, the objects 
of her strongest respect, and the sources of her most refined 
pleasures. Woman is so constituted that she can bear 
almost every thing, and still live on, and feel that her best 
feelings must be martyrs to her husband's coarseness or 
ignorance ; but at the same time she has capacities for the 
most pure and lofty enjoyments, for refined pleasures, for 
exquisite delicacies of sentiment and feeling, which her hus- 
band should be able fully to gratify. This he can always 
do if he is properly acquainted with her nature. Woman 
loves the strong, the resolute, and the vigorous in man, 
To these qualities she looks for protection. Under the 
shadow of their wings she feels secure. Bu she wants 



CONTRASTS AND AFFINITIES OF CHARACTER. 235 

them blended with the tender, th 3 .-. and the lofty in 

i.timent. Her companionship, her joy, she finds in these. 
It is in these that she meets her lover; to thes -urs 

the full tides of her loving soul ; and in response to these she 
enters the bower of conjugal felicity. He who knows not 
her nature, knows not how to gratify and satisfy that 

fcure. 

So woman should know the nature of man. The rough 
ikes him appear what he is not. He has a 
vein of tender:. w the ro ta of his worldly 

man. which woman should know how to penetrate and 
bring up for her own as well as his enjoyment. It is in 
this strata of tenderness that she rinds her true companion- 
ship with him, and he with her. If she is ignorant of his 
nature, she knows not how to supply his wants or answer 
the calls of that nature. Their natures, though different, 
are singularly adapted to each other. When his is bold 
and hers is trembling, she flies in gladness to him for shel- 
ter. When his is strong and hers is weak, she trustingly 
leans on him for strength. When hers is warm and his is 
le gladly and lovingly nestles in her bosom, to be 
warmed into the resistless charms of love. When hers is 
confiding and his reserved, he with a deep joy opens his 
J heart to nfidence. Mao has something peculiar to 

I his character, which is the masculine element of human 1 
peculiarity as marked, which is the : 
mil f humanity. These two, though different, 

e not repulsive to each other, but stronglj ive. 

These peculiarities must be known, and known before mar 



236 GOODNESS DOES NOT CONSTITUTE HARMONY. 

riage, or there will be seasons of unhappiness in the conju- 
gal state. It is ignorance in these matters that causes a 
great amount of matrimonial infelicity. Then this very 
ignorance renders both young men and women incapable 
of selecting a companion suitable to their own natures. A 
good man and a good woman will not always make each 
other a suitable companion. They may both be very ex- 
cellent people, and be so different in many respects as to 
render them wholly unfit for each other. 

Before we can select a companion for ourselves and do 
it intelligently, we must know what we want. To know 
this, we must know our own nature, our wants, just how 
we shall live and act in the married state ; must know what 
we want a companion for, whether for work, for a home, 
for a drudge, for the gratification of passion, or for true 
companionship. Every youth should examine himself 
well, to see what views of life operate most strongly upon 
him in respect to a contemplated companionship. If they 
are not high and honorable, he may hope for but little real 
joy in the married state. 

Thus we see most clearly the necessity of a thorough 
study of this whole subject by every youth. No one can 
make an enlightened choice of a companion without an en- 
lightened view of the whole subject. I say every youth ; 
for it is true that every youth should look forward to mar- 
riage as a duty which he ought to perform, not unwillingly, 
it is true, but gladly. The period of the latter youth should 
be considered and so lived as to be a meet preparation for 
matrimony. 



DUTY OF NEARLY ALL TO MARRY. 237 

The young man who marries not, except in a few excep- 
tional cases arising out of ill- health, deformity, malforma- 
tion, or great perversity of temper, or eccentricity of char- 
acter, fails in one of the most palpable duties of life. He 
deprives himself of life's most refined and exalted pleasures, 
of some of its strongest incentives to virtue and activity, 
sets an example unworthy of imitation, and fails to do much 
good that he ought to do to society. Moreover, he leaves 
one who might have made him a happy and useful compan- 
ion, to pine in maidenhood of heart through all the weary 
days of life, to be less useful to society than she might have 
been, had he performed his duty to himself and her. I 
would not make marriage the sole end of youth's thoughts 
and labors. They should prepare for a life of usefulness 
whether they marry or not. One may be very happy and 
very useful who never marries, if he lives for a worthy ob- 
ject in life. He or she who prepares in early youth for a 
true and useful life will be prepared for marriage. Mar- 
riage is real life, not a moonshine shadow. To prepare for 
it, is to prepare for just such a life as will be a blessing to 
the world. The silly theorist about marriage, the lovelorn 
whiner, the passion-burnt anchorist, the endless talker about 
its sweets and pleasures, and vague longer for its privilege, 
are making but a poor preparation for it. It wants sober 
study, solid life, earnest thought, high aims and noble pur- 
poses, to prepare for the proper performance of its exalted 
and pleasurable duties. Such should be the prepar 
of every youth. But let us consider some things m 
iv to an intelligent choice of a companion. 



238 MATRIMONIAL CANDIDATES CLASSIFIED. 

We have said that God marries the truly married. This 
no doubt is true. He sanctions the union of those fitted 
for each other. True unions are founded in congeniality 
of spirit. This is the fundamental law of marriage. There 
is a certain class of women, how large or how small, we 
pretend not to say, that are so nearly alike in their feel- 
ings, desires, aspirations, and spiritual characteristics, that 
they impress their most intimate friends in a most similar 
manner. There is also a certain class of men, so kindred 
in their natures, that when you know one you know them 
all, who, under similar circumstances, will always all be 
affected alike and act alike. Their spiritual constitutions 
are kindred ; they are formed after the similitude of the 
same pattern. Call this class of men class A, and this 
class of women class A. Now any one of these women 
would make a suitable companion for any one of these men. 
And so of the men. Between these two classes there is a 
harmony, a congeniality, a kindredness, that would render 
them proper companions for each other. When any two 
of these are united, they are truly united. Their hearts 
flow together ; their souls blend in one ; their natures coa- 
lesce ; their lives mingle like the meeting of two mountain 
streams, and flow sweetly on together. Intellectually, mor- 
ally, socially, spiritually, they become one. Like the halves 
of the same golden globe, they meet and unite, and their 
union forms a sphere or circle in the spiritual realm, in 
which the harmony of existence is felt and manifested. A 
single individual is always but half an existence or unity. 
The race are formed in pairs. A pair constitutes a unit, 



A TEUE MATE THE OTHER HALF OF SELF. 

or spiritual circle, capable of feeling and manifesting the 
harmony of being. A single being existing alone is always 
inharmonious, incomplete. Something is wanting to make 
it whole and perfect in the play and activity of its feelings. 
That something is its mate. That mate is kindred with 
itself, the other half of itself. They think, feel, and act as 
one when united. Their joys, labors, trials, and hopes are 
the same. Their hearts beat against each other, and beat 
to the same time. This is a true union; it is such a union 
as God sanctions. These two classes of men and women 
should all be united. They would thus lay the foundation 
of a grand temple of love and harmony, the beauty and 
sweetness of which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard. There 
is also another class of women differing 'a little from the 
first, and a corresponding class of men, which should all be 
united. These might be called classes B. Then would fol- 
low other classes, till the whole race would be found to be 
properly associated in an almost innumerable number of 
classes or circles, one of male and another of female, through- 
out the whole series. To be properly united, each one of any 
class should be united with one of the corresponding class, 
If this could be universal, the race would be in harmony. 

Now, suppose a man of the class A marries a woman of 
the class B. There must be a certain degree of inharmo- 
ny existing between their natures, and a corresponding 
amount of unhappiness in their lives. If a man of the 
A marries a woman of the class C. there will be g 
greater amount of inharmony and unhappiness. A 
on to the end of the chapter. The greater the difference 



240 HONESTY IN MATRIMONIAL MATTERS. 

in their natures, the greater the inharmony and unhappi- 
ness. This is the simple philosophy of marriage. Now, 
the question is, how shall we know our mates % — how shall 
we know the persons in the other sex which belong to the 
class of being that corresponds to our own ? 

We readily admit that this question is not so easily 
solved as many others. But still, with proper care, reflec- 
tion, and honesty on the part of both men and women, it 
may be so solved that mistakes need seldom occur among 
the enlightened for whom I write. 

I. First, it is necessary for the youth of both sexes to be 
perfectly honest in their intercourse with each other, so as 
to exhibit always their true character and nature. Dishon- 
esty is, perhaps, a greater barrier even than ignorance to 
a proper understanding of the real character of those with 
whom we contemplate matrimonial alliances. Young men 
and women are not true to themselves. They put on false 
characters. They assume airs not their own. They shine 
in borrowed plumes. They practice every species of de- 
ception for the concealment of their real characters. They 
study to appear better than they are. They seek, by the 
adornments of dress and gems, by the blandishments of 
art and manner, by the allurements of smiles and honeyed 
words, by the fascination of pleasure and scenes of excite- 
ment, to add unreal, unpossessed charms to their persons 
and characters. They appear in each others' society to be 
the embodiment of goodness and sweetness, the personifi- 
cation of lofty principle and holy love, when, in fact, they 
are full of human weaknesses and frailties. 



MARRYING FOR A HOME, MONEY, OR PASSION. 241 

Now all these outward adornments and blandishments, 
which are not in accordance with, or the proper emblems 
of, the inward nature and character, are so many lies fcold 
to deceive somebody into a false and wicked alliance of 
marriage. When young people are thus deceitful with each 
other before marriage, it is only just and right that they 
should suffer after for their wickedness. It is the just pen- 
alty of their sin. Their lives ought to be as miserable 
after as they have been deceitful before marriage. And I 
believe they generally are. Another species of dishonesty, 
is in the objects for which people marry. The real object 
of marriage is companionship. But thousands marry for 
a home, for standing, for money, for passion, without telling 
their partners that these are their objects. Such marriages 
are most lying frauds, base forgeries of truth, that ought to 
be punished with their legitimate infelicity and wretched- 
ness. Any man or woman that will deceive an intended 
companion with respect to the object of marriage, is too 
mean to have a good companion, or to enjoy one if in his 
or her possession. Now that wealth and cast exert so great 
an influence in the world, the honest marriages have become 
few. What man or woman proclaims among his or her 
associates that station or wealth is the object for which he 
or she desires a matrimonial alliance ? And yet, how I 
ly these things enter into the calculations of thousands of 
the unmarried ! Now, all these calculations are dishonest, 
unless they are candidly expressed : for the real and im- 
plied object of marriage is companionship. 

Whoever then, would make an intelligent eh 
11 



242 STUDY THE CONSTITUTION. 

proper companion must be honest, and must commune with 
honest associates in the opposite sex. To be honest, one 
must act himself, be true to his interior man, make his out- 
ward life a meet expression of his inward. Thus he will 
be known to be just what he is. Every one has a natural 
intuition of kindredness, which will be an almost infallible 
guide when he and his associates are truly honest. But 
when one is under the influence of passion, or any false or 
wicked motive, his intuitive judgment is overwhelmed by 
the blinding power of that falsity, and is rendered wholly 
incapable of a correct decision, or of pure impressions. A 
dishonest man can neither trust his judgment or his impres- 
sions. They are more likely to be false than true. 

Then, first of all, let youth be honest in their intercourse 
with each other. Thus they can know and be known, see 
and be seen as they really are ; and natural companions 
will know each other almost as soon as they meet. Souls 
of real kindred make feel that kindredness almost as soon 
as they. come into each other's presence, when they associ- 
ate with pure hearts and honest purposes. They give each 
other an impression of congeniality which is pleasing and 
vivid, and may be considered as the instinctive indication 
of an internal companionship. 

II. The second subject of interest and importance in our 
observations concerning a choice of a companion, is the 
physical constitution and temperament. We want a com- 
panion kindred with our own souls. The character of the 
soul is, to a certain extent, exhibited in the outward person. 
A coarse 5 harsh, roughly organized body is never the tab- 



HASMONY OF TEMPERAMENT. 243 

ernacle of a refined, sensitive, and ardent spirit ; nor is a 
refined, delicate, physical organism the dwelling-place of a 
dull, stupid, unfeeling, and harsh-toned soul. There is an 
exact and universal correspondence between the inward 
and outward man. This correspondence should be studied. 
Harmony of spirit will always be found connected with 
harmony of physical constitution, with respect to tempe- 
rament. If we know our own temperament, our own de- 
gree of physical activity and refinement, we may find its 
correspondent for our companion. We shall thus secure 
physical harmony, thus secure the dulcet charm of phys- 
ical kindredness. This is absolutely necessary to a full 
spiritual congeniality. 

If our temperament is upon the extreme of coarseness 
or refinement, or upon any extreme, it is better for poster- 
ity that we choose a companion with a temperament less 
in the extreme than our own. However, it should always 
be marked with our own peculiarity. If one has very red 
or very light hair, it is better for his companion to have 
darker hair, or even black hair, with about the same degree 
of activity and refinement. The same may be said of the 
eyes and the general complexion. This secures about the 
same degree of spiritual delicacy and earnestness in the 
companions, and guards their posterity against extrci. 
of temperament and character. Their influence is also 
favorable upon each other, gradually bringing back the 
character from the extreme. This, however, does not in 
the least favor the idea that those of an opposite character 
should marry. No greater error was ever inoul 



244 INTELLECTUAL ADAPTATION. 

Sometimes, however, an individual may be benefited who 
has some very bad or extreme trait of character by having 
a companion who is the reverse upon this point. But then 
the good one has to be made a martyr to the bad one, 
which is a kind of injustice not pleasant to be endured. 
People seeking companionship are not willing, as a gene- 
ral thing, to voluntarily become literally personal sacrifices 
to improve the character of a contemplated companion. 
Then seek for harmony of physical constitution and tem- 
perament, as absolutely necessary to congeniality of spirit. 
III. The next point of importance is intellectual harmo- 
ny. The intellectual characters of companions should be 
harmonious, and of about the same degree of strength. 
For a philosopher to marry a ninny, is absolutely wicked. 
For a genius to marry a blockhead, is suicidal to happiness. 
For a man of highly-cultivated intellect to companion with 
a woman of narrow and untutored mind, is no better, and 
"vice versa" Intellectual enjoyments constitute a great 
portion of the real pleasure of life. They are solid, endu- 
ring, and satisfying. It is by the wisdom of intellect that 
we are guided in all our business concerns, philanthropic 
movements, and pleasure-seeking operations. Intellect is 
our pilot across the sea of life. A true and proper respect 
for one as a companion can not long be retained under a 
consciousness of that companion's inferiority. It is an 
equal we respect as we should a companion. It is impos- 
sible properly to respect an inferior. Let every youth, then, 
bear this in mind : an equal in intellectual endowment and 
cultivation should be a real companion. 



MORAL AND SOCIAL HARMONY. 

IV. A harmony in moral character and feeling is a 
lately essential to a full kindredness. In no respect is con- 
geniality more important than in this. In the moral nature 
all the virtues have their birth. This is the Lord's garden. 

Here are philanthropy, religion, and faith. Here are hope 
and duty. Without harmony here there can be no perma- 
nent happiness. Marriage should be consecrated in this 
region of the mind. A difference of moral strength and 
activity, a difference in the sentiments of duty and good- 
ness, a difference in the religious opinions and feelings, will 
constantly mar, or, at least, detract from the peace and hap- 
piness of any union, however perfect in other respects. 
Above all things else, seek for moral harmony of soul, seek 
for kindredness in this highest department of mind. Most 
sacred of all things are the sentiments here cherished. A 
union must extend to the moral nature, or it can not be 
true and blessed. 

V. Equally important is a harmony of affection. The 
various affections of the heart should be mutually and 
equally cherished. A full, perfect, and ardent congeniality 
should be felt in all the loves. Home, country, friends, 
children, parents, and companion should be loved by com- 
panions with an equal ardor of soul. The charm of conge- 
nial love has been the theme of the orator, the divine, and 
the poet since Adam's union with Eve. Without a deep 
and earnest mutuality in love no two should ever be mar- 
ried. It is love that inspires and sanctions marri 
indulge in the privileges of matrimony -without love 
species of unparalleled sinfulness. It is love that hallows 



^io A THOROUGH ACQUAINTANCE NECESSARY. 

and makes them virtuous by its divine consecration. In 
order that love may be permanently mutual, there must 
be a general congeniality of nature, spirit, and character. 
The thoughts, opinions, feelings, activities, and pleasures 
must be mutual. Then love assumes its highest aspect ; 
is placed upon its only sure foundation ; and glows with 
its native ardor, to fill the soul with its unutterable charm 
of charms. 

A proper attention to these several particulars, in a 
careful and sincere study of the whole character, under the 
lights of the various sciences which treat of human charao 
ter and life, will enable one to determine with accuracy 
and confidence whether any individual is truly congenial 
with himself. This, however, is more than a brief study of 
a few days or weeks. It is the study of years. It is haz- 
ardous in the extreme to marry short of two or three years' 
acquaintance and careful study of the character of the con- 
templated companion. Not in a few brief interviews can 
the character of an individual be fully learned, or a full 
congeniality be discovered. Congenial spirits will more 
frequently be found in the walks of life and the circles of 
society in which we have been accustomed to move than . I 
elsewhere. Let youth be truly intelligent, sincere, and de- 
vout in the practical as well as theatrical pursuit of this 
subject, and almost sure will they be of securing to them- 
selves the rich pleasures and inestimable benefits of this 
great institution ordained of Heaven, for human virtue, 
happiness, and exaltation in spirit. 



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